Interchange Categories

ABSTRACT

This document describes tools capable of altering to which interchange categories credit-card transactions are assigned. In some embodiments, the tools receive parameters for interchange categories and transaction information for a client (e.g., one or more merchants) that has been charged interchange fees based on some of these categories. The parameters are utilized (e.g., by a credit card issuer) to determine to which interchange category a particular transaction will be assigned. The tools may determine, based on these parameters and the transaction information, how transactions may be changed to enable similar credit-card transactions to be assigned to a lower-cost interchange category.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/554,691, entitled “Altering Card-IssuerInterchange Categories,” filed on Sep. 4, 2009, which in turn is acontinuation of and claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/740,190, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,603,312 and entitled “AlteringCard-Issuer Interchange Categories,” filed on Apr. 25, 2007, thedisclosures of which are incorporated in their entirety by referenceherein.

BACKGROUND

In many typical credit-card transactions, a consumer purchases a productor service from a merchant using a VISA®- or MasterCard®-branded creditcard. To complete the transaction, the merchant receives anauthorization from a third party, known as a “merchant processor,” whichis sponsored by a VISA®- or MasterCard®-member bank. Merchants typicallyselect a merchant processor to install point-of-sale equipment, trainthe merchant's staff in the use of the equipment, access the credit-cardnetwork for authorizations, and process the merchant's credit-cardtransactions.

The merchant processor, through its sponsoring bank, reimburses themerchant for each transaction after deducting transaction fees. Withinthese transaction fees are the merchant processor's processing fee, theinterchange fees paid to the issuer of the credit card, and theassessment fees that are paid to the credit-card association. Themerchant processor submits the net transaction into the cardassociation's settlement network in order to be reimbursed by theissuing bank. The VISA® and MasterCard® associations are responsible forbuilding, operating, maintaining, authorizing, and providing theinformation required for the member banks to settle their nettransaction volume. Each association receives an assessment fee fromboth the merchant processor's bank and the issuer's bank for eachcredit-card transaction processed through their respective network. Theissuer in turn bills the consumer the full amount of the originalcharge.

Card issuers charge interchange fees based on interchange categoriesthat each assigns to credit-card transactions. The card issuers,however, may assign each transaction to one of over 100 differentinterchange categories. Understanding these different interchangecategories can be quite difficult for merchants, often resulting inmerchants being overcharged or at the least not knowing how best toreduce these fees in the future. The potential savings merchants couldenjoy can be substantial—card issuers currently charge merchantsbillions of dollars a year in interchange fees worldwide.

These interchange categories are difficult to understand in part becausethere are so many different kinds. Some are based on the merchant'sretail industry status, some on the type of card presented for payment,some on the process used by the merchant to gain authorization for thetransaction, some on the type of information received, and many on acombination of these factors. The interchange categories (and thus therate charged) may depend, for example, on whether the consumer's andcard's data is processed electronically from the magnetic strip on theback of the card, manually by the merchant based on the information setforth on the card, or manually by the merchant based on informationprovided by the consumer over the telephone. In short, the number andcomplexity of these categories make it difficult for a merchant toreduce its interchange-category fees.

Not only are the interchange categories themselves often difficult tounderstand, the effect of these interchange categories may be difficultto track because of the sheer number of transactions received bymerchants; some merchants receive hundreds of thousands of transactionsa month. Many merchants simply do not have the extraordinary manpower orexpertise often needed to analyze these transactions to figure out howmuch they may save—even if they did understand how to change thecategories assigned to their transactions.

Further still, merchant processors—the companies that have goodinformation about interchange categories and their fees—often have noincentive to help merchants reduce these fees; most merchant processorsmake no more money by providing details about these complexities thannot doing so and some may even lose money by providing these details.

SUMMARY

This document describes tools capable of altering to which interchangecategories credit-card transactions are assigned. In some embodiments,the tools receive parameters for interchange categories and transactioninformation for a client (e.g., one or more merchants) that has beencharged interchange fees based on some of these categories. Theparameters are utilized (e.g., by a credit card association) todetermine to which interchange category a particular transaction will beassigned. The tools may determine, based on these parameters and thetransaction information, how transactions may be changed to enablesimilar credit-card transactions to be assigned a lower-cost interchangecategory and the accompanying potential fee savings.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key or essentialfeatures of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used asan aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter. The term“tools,” for instance, may refer to system(s), method(s),computer-readable instructions, and/or technique(s) as permitted by thecontext above and throughout the document.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Non-limiting and non-exhaustive embodiments are described with referenceto the following figures, wherein like reference numerals refer to likeparts throughout the various views unless otherwise specified.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example operating environment in which variousembodiments of the tools may operate.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example flow diagram in which the tools act toenable the interchange module to receive credit-card transaction dataand other information.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example flow diagram in which the tools build andadjust a baseline interchange rate.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example flow diagram in which the tools determineways in which to alter interchange categories assigned to transactionsof a merchant operating in a university bookstore and the accompanyingpotential fee savings.

FIG. 5 illustrates example interchange categories with simplifiedparameters divided into four groups.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example flow diagram in which the tools determinea savings between an adjusted baseline interchange rate and a currentrate.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example flow diagram in which the tools auditinterchange categories assigned to credit-card transactions.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example process illustrating some ways in whichthe tools may act to audit and/or track fee reductions for interchangefees and their categories, as well as other actions.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example process illustrating some ways in whichthe tools may act to alter interchange categories.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Overview

The following document describes tools capable of altering to whichinterchange categories credit-card transactions are assigned andaccompanying potential fee savings, as well as other capabilities. Insome cases the tools determine ways in which to alter interchangecategories by receiving parameters for interchange categories anddetermining lower-cost interchange categories available to a client ifthe client implements one or more transaction changes, such as gaining acustomer's signature or entering additional information. In someembodiments, a client may include one or more merchants. While certainembodiments herein are discussed with reference to a merchant ormerchants, this is not intended to be limiting, and the described toolsmay be implemented for any suitable entity without departing from thespirit and scope of the claimed embodiments.

The tools discussed herein may also receive information indicating, fora particular area of business, potential lower-cost interchangecategories and, based on a client's currently-assigned interchangecategories, determine which currently-assigned interchange categoriesmay be replaced by these lower-cost interchange categories. In eithercase, the tools may determine and provide potential fee savings based onthe lower-cost interchange categories being assigned instead of thecurrent interchange categories. By so doing the tools may save clientssignificant amounts of money by helping them lower their interchangefees.

An environment in which the tools may enable these and other actions isset forth below in a section entitled Example Operating Environment.This section is followed by Storing Credit-Card Transaction Data, whichdescribes one particular example in which the tools act to enable aninterchange module to receive credit-card transaction data and performother actions for a national bookstore chain. The next section, entitledBuilding and Adjusting Baseline Interchange Rates, continues thebookstore example in the context of building and adjusting a baselineinterchange rate for the national bookstore chain. The next section,entitled Determining Ways in which to Alter Interchange Categories,continues the bookstore example in the context of determining ways inwhich to have a lower-cost interchange category assigned instead of ahigher-cost interchange category, as well as the accompanying potentialsavings.

The following section also continues the bookstore example anddetermines a savings between an adjusted baseline interchange rate and acurrent rate; it is entitled Determining Card-Issuer Interchange-FeeSavings. The next section, entitled Auditing Interchange Categories,continues the example but from the Storing section, and describes waysin which the tools audit interchange categories assigned to credit-cardtransactions. A final section describes various other embodiments andmanners in which the tools may act and is entitled Other Embodiments ofthe Tools. This overview, including these section titles and summaries,is provided for the reader's convenience and is not intended to limitthe scope of the claims or the entitled sections.

Example Operating Environment

Before describing the tools in detail, the following discussion of anexample operating environment is provided to assist the reader inunderstanding some ways in which various inventive aspects of the toolsmay be employed. The environment described below constitutes but oneexample and is not intended to limit application of the tools to any oneparticular operating environment. Other environments may be used withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the claimed subject matter.

FIG. 1 illustrates one such operating environment generally at 100having data sources 102, a data-entry entity 104, a relational database106, and a computing device 108. Communications between these entitiesare shown with arrows.

The data sources may include text-formatted documents easily readable byhumans (e.g., paper), websites, or accessible databases, to name a few.The data-entry entity is responsible for retrieving information from thedata sources and storing it in the relational database. This entity mayinclude a person reading information from a paper document or websiteand typing the information into an application through which informationis stored in intermediate memory or directly into the relationaldatabase, an application using Application Program Interfaces (APIs) toaccess API-accessible databases or applications and store information,or a Bot (an Internet-searching data gatherer) capable of gleaninginformation from websites and other data sources over the Internet. Thisentity may store information automatically and/or without userinteraction in many cases, such as when it includes an application usingAPIs or a Bot.

The relational database includes one or more databases in which data maybe stored and from which data may be extracted, such as a SQL™, Oracle™,or IBM™ DB2 relational database.

The computing device includes one or more processor(s) 110 andcomputer-readable media 112. The computing device is shown with a servericon, though it may comprise one or multiple computing devices ofvarious types. The processors are capable of accessing and/or executingthe computer-readable media.

The computer-readable media includes or has access to a formattingmodule 114, an interchange module 116, a report generator module 118, acategory module 120, and a category entity 122. Each of these modulesand the category entity (except when the category entity is or includesnon-software elements) may be integral or separate; they are shownseparate to aid in describing functionality and actions of each, thoughthis is not required.

In many cases credit-card transaction data is provided in a format orformats that are not easily readable by the interchange module or arenot consistent. In these cases the formatting module may transform theinformation into one, easily-machine-usable format, often prior toloading it into the relational database. In one example case describedin greater detail below, the formatting module includes an executableExtract, Transform, and Load (ETL) package. This ETL package may extracthuman-readable, text-formatted (e.g., pre-transformed) credit-cardtransaction data of one or multiple formats, transform this data into aformat easily-usable by the interchange module, and load it into therational database in a standardized format that may be used forcomputation.

The interchange module is capable of auditing and/or tracking reductionsto interchange fees charged to merchants incident to those merchantsaccepting payments with credit cards. Note that the term “credit”includes credit, debit, and other accounting systems so long as they areprocessed by a credit or debit association (e.g., VISA® andMasterCard®). Also note that the term “card” applies to any medium ormanner in which sales or purchases may be electronically transacted,such as a card having a magnetic strip, a card having circuitry, acredit account not having any physical element, or a key-faub thatelectromagnetically identifies an account. Ways in which the interchangemodule may audit and/or track fee reductions are developed in greaterdetail below.

The report generator module is capable of receiving information from theinterchange module and the category module and providing reports on thisinformation in human or computer-readable formats.

The category module is capable of determining ways in which to alterinterchange categories assigned to credit-card transactions andaccompanying potential fee savings, as well as providing informationindicating its findings (e.g., to the report generator module). Thecategory module may include, have access to, or interact with thecategory entity. As will be described in detail below, the categoryentity may perform some of the actions and functions of the categorymodule and may be software (e.g., an application, applet, or othercode), or a person, or a combination of both.

Storing Credit-Card Transaction Data

This section describes one particular example in which the tools act tostore credit-card transaction data and enable the interchange module toreceive this data. This example is an implementation of the tools but isnot intended to limit the scope of the tools or the claimed embodiments.

The credit-card transaction data that the tools enable the interchangemodule to receive includes information about credit-card transactions(e.g., customers purchasing a product or service from a merchant using acredit card). This credit-card transaction data may include, for eachpurchase or groups of purchases, the purchase price, the date of thepurchase or date that the purchase was batched by the merchant, acard-issuer interchange category, fee, or rate for the purchase, andthrough which credit-card association's network the purchase was made(e.g., VISA® or MasterCard®). The data may also indicate each purchaseand its interchange category or groups of purchases by their interchangecategory, some of which are noted later in the discussion.

Parameters used to determine the category may also be included in thecredit-card transaction data or determined based on information in thecredit-card transaction data. These parameters may be divided,conceptually, into four categories: 1) a merchant's area of business; 2)information received for a transaction; 3) how information is receivedfor a transaction; and 4) type of card used in a transaction. Theseparameters are described in greater detail below.

Having described the credit-card transaction data generally, the exampleturns to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 shows actions and interactions of and betweenelements of operating environment 100 of FIG. 1, as well as some resultsof these actions and interactions.

At arrow 2-1 in FIG. 2, a Bot 202 included in data-entry entity 104gleans credit-card transaction data from a merchant processor's website102 w. Merchant processors often present credit-card transaction data tomerchants on a website in a human-readable text format. Note that theBot may glean credit-card transaction data for many if not thousands ofmerchants automatically and without user interaction throughmerchant-processors websites. In this example the data-entry entitygleans credit-card transaction data for all merchants associated with aparticular client—here a national bookstore chain. A client may have onemerchant or may have hundreds or thousands, depending on the size of thebusiness.

The example national bookstore chain is assumed to have, for eachbookstore, a merchant at its coffee shop, merchants at its check-outline, and a merchant at its service counter. This national bookstorealso has merchants accessible through the Internet for websitepurchases. Assume that the national bookstore has 200 stores and 2,000merchants. Each of the merchants may have hundreds or thousands ofcredit-card transaction per billing period, amounting to 800,000 to8,000,000 credit-card transactions per billing period (e.g., a calendarmonth). As this number suggests, it is difficult for clients to keeptrack of all credit-card transactions in a billing period by readingmerchant-processor statements on websites, on paper, or inhuman-readable text formats.

Consider the following example merchant-processor statement inhuman-readable text format. This processor statement is presented at themerchant processor's website 102 w of FIG. 2. This statement includescredit-card transaction data for just one merchant during just onebilling cycle.

May 31, 2005 1923 1923920009 Merchant Processor Merchant Processor'sAddress Merchant Processor's Identification Number Merchant Merchant'sAddress Merchant's Identification Number: 932734932 PLAN SUMMARY PL #SALES $ SALES # CREDITS $ CREDITS NET SALES AVG TKT DISC P/I % DISCOUNTDUE V 997 52,203.43 26 925.68 51,277.75 52.36 .130 .000 129.61 M 157477,488.14 40 1,180.06 76,308.08 49.23 .130 .000 204.62 DS 298 16,210.9917 583.77 15,627.22 54.40 .000 .000 .00 ** 2869 145,902.56 83 2,689.51143,213.05 50.85 334.23 DAY REF NO. * PL #SALES $SALES $CREDITS DIS.PDNET DEPOSIT 01 52106000034 D T 76 3,695.36 136.59 .00 3,558.77 0252106100038 D T 73 4,028.78 39.33 .00 3,989.45 03 52106200038 D T 644,709.22 .00 .00 4,709.22 04 52106300037 D T 95 4,131.47 87.09 .004,044.38 06 52106400038 D T 97 4,440.53 119.75 .00 4,320.78 0652106500036 D T 149 9,125.75 84.94 .00 9,040.81 07 52106600038 D T 632,500.94 57.31 .00 2,443.63 08 52106700037 D T 92 4,395.07 150.35 .004,244.72 09 52106800038 D T 77 3,466.22 54.15 .00 3,412.07 1052106900038 D T 78 3,445.58 18.05 .00 3,427.53 11 52107000037 D T 873,442.54 65.83 .00 3,376.71 13 52107100037 D T 87 4,151.55 358.95 .003,792.60 13 52107200037 D T 117 6,766.41 5.29 .00 6,761.12 1452107300036 D T 88 4,406.70 63.72 .00 4,342.98 15 52107400038 D T 762,070.91 35.54 .00 2,035.37 16 52107500038 D T 94 4,606.75 62.78 .004,543.97 17 52107600036 D T 90 3,568.66 7.43 .00 3,561.23 18 52107700040D T 122 5,764.02 174.37 .00 5,589.65 20 52107800038 D T 119 5,803.9744.70 .00 5,759.27 21 52108000039 D T 230 15,854.65 32.97 .00 15,821.6822 52108100040 D T 111 5,544.80 232.06 .00 5,312.74 23 52108200037 D T93 4,199.12 141.67 .00 4,057.45 24 52108300040 D T 76 2,660.72 128.79.00 2,531.93 25 52108400038 D T 71 2,764.74 12.74 .00 2,752.00 2752108500040 D T 112 7,216.82 39.55 .00 7,177.27 27 52108600038 D T 1347,511.06 219.85 .00 7,291.21 29 52108800040 D T 107 5,101.36 134.45 .004,966.91 31 52109000040 D T 191 10,528.86 181.26 .00 10,347.60 DEPOSITTOTALS 2,869 145,902.56 2,689.51 .00 143,213.05 AMOUNT DEDUCTED FROMACCOUNT 2,725.61 FEES NUMBER AMOUNT DESCRIPTION TOTAL SUPPORT PACKAGE5.95 02 14.00 TERMINAL FEE 28.00 10 586.95 VISA ® STANDARD (2.63%XSALES + $.10XITEMS) 16.44 350  12,452.24 VISA ® RTL CK DB (1.05%XSALES + $.15XITEMS) 183.25 461  27,404.65 VISA ® CPS RETAIL (1.54%XSALES + $.10XITEMS) 468.13 57 3,431.71 VISA ® EIRF (2.14% XSALES +$.10XITEMS) 79.14   16− 662.12− VISA ® CREDIT CONSUMER CARD @ 1.67%11.06−   01− 6.37− VISA ® CREDIT COMMERCIAL CARD @ 2.24% .14− 471,716.92 VISA ® EIRF DB (1.75% XSALES + $.20XITEMS) 39.45 02 92.90VISA ® STANDARD DB(1.90% XSALES + $.25XITEMS) 2.27   09− 257.19− VISA ®CV-CNSR DB (1.31% XSALES) 3.37− 52,203.43 VISA ® DUES AND ASSESSMENTS(.0925% XSALES) 48.29 10 1,577.69 MC STANDARD (2.70% XSALES +$.10XITEMS) 43.60 522  32,284.36 MC MERIT 3 (1.54% XSALES + $.10XITEMS)549.38 06 1,579.45 MC KEY ENTERED (1.90% XSALES + $.10XITEMS) 30.61 813,821.95 MC CORP DATA RT1(2.65% XSALES + $.10XITEMS) 109.38 16 604.03 MCSTANDARD DB (1.90% XSALES + $.25XITEMS) 15.48 10 203.57 MC KEY ENTER DB(1.64% XSALES + $.16XITEMS) 4.94 929  37,417.09 MC MERIT 3 DB (1.05%XSALES + $.15XITEMS) 532.23   19− 371.74− MC CONS DB RF 3 @1.40% 5.20−  19− 668.64− MC CONS CR RF 4 @1.77% 11.83−   02− 139.68− MC CORP CR RF3 @2.15% 3.00− 77,488.14 MC DUES AND ASSESSMENTS(.095% XSALES) 73.61 656,311.88 VISA ® BUS ELECT (2.20% XSALES + $.10XITEMS) 145.36 05 206.18VISA ® BUS STD (2.70% XSALES + $.10XITEMS) 6.07 296  DISCOVERAUTHORIZATIONS @ 15 CENTS 44.40 OTHER FEES DUE 2,391.38 DISCOUNT DUE334.23 OTHER FEES DUE 2,391.38 AMOUNT DEDUCTED 2,725.61 Legend CARD PLANCODES VD - VISA ® DEBIT CARD MB - MASTERCARD ® BUS. CARD P3 - PRIVATELABEL PLAN 3 VL - VISA ® LARGE TICKET JB - JCB AM - AMERICAN EXPRESSVB - VISA ® BUSINESS CARD P1 - PRIVATE LABEL PLAN 1 VA - VISA ® CASHML - MCS LARGE TICKET DC - DINERS CLUB CARD V - VISA ® M - MASTERCARD ®P2 - PRIVATE LABEL PLAN 2 MA - MASTERCARD ® CASH DB - DEBIT CARD DS -DISCOVER TRANSACTION PLAN CODES V - VISA ® L - LARGE TICKET 2 - PLAN TWOD - DEBIT M - MASTERCARD ® T - ALL PLANS 3 - PLAN THREE B - BUSINESSCARD P - PRIVATE LABEL 1 - PLAN ONE A - CASH ADVANCE TRANSACTION TYPECODES D - DEPOSIT B - CHARGEBACK REVERSAL C - CHARGEBACK A - ADJUSTMENT

At arrow 2-2, the data-entry entity stores the credit-card transactiondata into intermediate storage 204 in the human-readable text format.The data stored in this example is human-readable text and likelydiffers from a format of some other merchant or client or is not aneasily-machine-usable format. The tools proceed to arrow 2-3 to addressthis issue.

At arrow 2-3, formatting module 114 extracts the text-format credit-cardtransaction data for the thousands of merchants of the nationalbookstore chain using an Extract portion of an Extract, Transform, andLoad (ETL) process. The tools execute a formatting ETL package 206,shown included in the formatting module of FIG. 2, to perform this ETLprocess. The formatting module differentiates between merchants of thenational bookstore chain and other merchants based on merchantidentifiers associated with the bookstore. These merchant identifiersare stored in table 208 in the relational database.

At arrow 2-4, the formatting module transforms the text-format creditcard transaction data into an easily-machine-usable format for thethousands of merchants and using a Transform portion of the ETL process.This transformation is shown with arrow 2-4.

At arrow 2-5, the formatting module loads the credit-card transactiondata in the easily-machine-usable format into the relational database.It loads the credit-card transaction data in this easily-machine-usableformat for the thousands of merchants using a Load portion of the ETLprocess. For the one example merchant above, the formatting modulestores its data into table 208 of the rational database. The formattingmodule also associates the merchant identifiers (here the “Merchant'sIdentification Number”) in table 208 with the appropriate credit-cardtransaction data. The formatting module may also or instead associatethe credit-card transaction data with internal database record numbers.

At this point in the process, credit-card transaction data is stored inthe relational database in a format that is easily usable andconsistent. By so doing, interchange module 116 may use the data toaudit, track fee reductions, or otherwise use information aboutinterchange categories for credit-card transactions. Examples of how theinterchange module may do so are described below and include building abaseline card-issuer interchange rate and adjusting that rate, auditingcard-issuer interchange fees, and tracking reductions in those fees.Category module 120 may use the data to determine potential fee savingsif the interchange categories assigned are replaced by lower-costinterchange categories.

Examples of how the category module may act are described after thefollowing section and also include analyzing categories and theirparameters to determine ways in which to alter which category will beassigned in the future to similar transactions. Similar transactions arethose transactions that would be assigned the same interchange categorywere a parameter change not made. Thus, a current transaction where acard was swiped but no signature is received is similar to a futuretransaction where a card is swiped and a signature is received, so longas if the future transaction did not have a signature it would have beenassigned the same category. The parameter change here is addition of thesignature.

Building and Adjusting Baseline Interchange Rates

This section continues the above example in the context of credit-cardtransaction data being made available to interchange module 116 to buildand adjust a baseline interchange rate for the above-described nationalbookstore chain. In later sections the transaction data made availableto the interchange module will be used for other purposes, such asmonthly auditing or determining actual or potential savings.

In this section the tools start by building, automatically and withoutuser interaction, a baseline interchange rate for the bookstore clientbased on a twelve-month history of credit-card transaction data for thebookstore's 2,000 merchants. The interchange module is enabled toextract this historical data by the tools performing the actions of FIG.2 twelve times for each of the 2,000 merchants, i.e., for 24,000merchant-processor statements.

The credit-card transaction data received is in an easily-machine-usableform and includes card-issuer interchange fees, card-issuer interchangecategories assigned, dollar volumes, and numbers of transactions towhich card-issuer interchange categories are assigned by a merchantprocessor. This data is for each merchant and for each billing cycle ofthe historic period, i.e., twelve historic merchant-processor statementsof each particular merchant for all of the bookstore's merchants overthe historical twelve-month period.

Specifically, at arrow 3-1 in FIG. 3, interchange module 116 extractscard-issuer interchange fees and dollar volumes on which the fees wereassessed for all of the bookstore's 2,000 merchants over the last twelvebilling cycles. The interchange module uses each merchant's identifier(e.g., “932734932”) and each billing cycle's end date (e.g., May 31,2005) to find this information in relational database 106 (e.g.,portions of table 208 for one merchant at one billing cycle).

At arrow 3-2, the interchange module adds up all the fees and dollarvolumes for each merchant over the twelve-month period. The interchangemodule then does this again and again for every merchant and then addsthese together. By so doing, the interchange module determines theclient's total fees and dollar volume on which the fees were based.

At arrow 3-3, the interchange module divides the total fees by thisdollar volume to provide a baseline card-issuer interchange rate for thehistorical twelve-month period for the bookstore.

At arrow 3-4, the interchange module loads the baseline card-issuerinterchange rate into relational database 106. The interchange moduleperforms the actions of arrows 3-1 to 3-4 using baseline ETL package302, shown included in interchange module 116 in FIG. 3.

After building the baseline, the tools proceed to adjust the baseline inthe following example manner.

At arrow 3-5, the interchange module determines the dollar volume onwhich each card-issuer interchange category was assigned for allcredit-card transactions for all of the bookstore's 2,000 merchantsduring the historic period. The categories assigned may be tracked aspart of arrows 3-1 to 3-3 or separately, as is done here. Here theinterchange module extracts, from the historic credit-card transactiondata for the bookstore's merchants, the interchange categories assigned,the dollar volumes, and the number of transactions for each of theinterchange categories.

Consider a portion of the example merchant-processor statement providedabove:

FEES NUMBER AMOUNT DESCRIPTION TOTAL SUPPORT PACKAGE 5.95 02 14.00TERMINAL FEE 28.00 10 586.95 VISA ® STANDARD (2.63% XSALES + $.10XITEMS)16.44 350  12,452.24 VISA ® RTL CK DB (1.05% XSALES + $.15XITEMS) 183.25461  27,404.65 VISA ® CPS RETAIL (1.54% XSALES + $.10XITEMS) 468.13 573,431.71 VISA ® EIRF (2.14% XSALES + $.10XITEMS) 79.14   16− 662.12−VISA ® CREDIT CONSUMER CARD @ 1.67% 11.06−   01− 6.37− VISA ® CREDITCOMMERCIAL CARD @ 2.24% .14− 47 1,716.92 VISA ® EIRF DB (1.75% XSALES +$.20XITEMS) 39.45 02 92.90 VISA ® STANDARD DB(1.90% XSALES + $.25XITEMS)2.27   09− 257.19− VISA ® CV-CNSR DB (1.31% XSALES) 3.37− 52,203.43VISA ® DUES AND ASSESSMENTS (.0925% XSALES) 48.29 10 1,577.69 MCSTANDARD (2.70% XSALES + $.10XITEMS) 43.60 522  32,284.36 MC MERIT 3(1.54% XSALES + $.10XITEMS) 549.38 06 1,579.45 MC KEY ENTERED (1.90%XSALES + $.10XITEMS) 30.61 81 3,821.95 MC CORP DATA RT1(2.65% XSALES +$.10XITEMS) 109.38 16 604.03 MC STANDARD DB (1.90% XSALES + $.25XITEMS)15.48 10 203.57 MC KEY ENTER DB (1.64% XSALES + $.16XITEMS) 4.94 929 37,417.09 MC MERIT 3 DB (1.05% XSALES + $.15XITEMS) 532.23   19− 371.74−MC CONS DB RF 3 @1.40% 5.20−   19− 668.64− MC CONS CR RF 4 @1.77% 11.83−  02− 139.68− MC CORP CR RF 3 @2.15% 3.00− 77,488.14 MC DUES ANDASSESSMENTS(.095% XSALES) 73.61 65 6,311.88 VISA ® BUS ELECT (2.20%XSALES + $.10XITEMS) 145.36 05 206.18 VISA ® BUS STD (2.70% XSALES +$.10XITEMS) 6.07 296  DISCOVER AUTHORIZATIONS @ 15 CENTS 44.40 OTHERFEES DUE 2,391.38

In this case the interchange module determines that 461 credit-cardtransactions totaling $27,404.65 were assigned a “VISA® CPS RETAIL”card-issuer interchange category for one merchant for one billing cycle.The interchange module does this over and over for each category andeach merchant and each billing cycle in the historic period. Assume, forexample, that the interchange module determines that 800,000transactions totaling $50,000,000 were assigned a “VISA® CPS RETAIL”category for the bookstore during the twelve-month history.

At arrow 3-6, the interchange module receives current card-issuerinterchange rates for each of the categories assigned to a credit-cardtransaction. The module receives this by extracting it from therelational database into which it was stored by data-entry entity 104either automatically or by manual user entry.

At arrow 3-7, the interchange module determines if any of the assignedcategory's rates have changed. Assume that the “VISA® CPS RETAIL” rate,which during the historic period was 1.54% of each sale plus $0.10 persale, is now 1.55% of each sale plus $0.11 per sale. For simplicity,assume for this portion of the example that no other category's rate haschanged since or during the twelve-month historical period (which isunlikely). The interchange module determines that the “VISA® CPS RETAIL”rate changed based on its old rate (which was found in the credit-cardtransaction data in the merchant-processor statement but could be foundin other ways) compared to the new rate.

At arrow 3-8, the interchange module determines the rate change—here0.01% of each sale and $0.01 per sale.

At arrow 3-9, the interchange module determines a fee difference overthe historical period sufficient to reflect the rate change. This ratechange reflects what the baseline rate would have been had the new ratebeen charged throughout the historic period. The interchange modulemultiplies the rate change by the dollar volume and number oftransactions.

The “VISA® CPS RETAIL” category had 800,000 transactions totaling$50,000,000, so the fee difference is:

Fee difference=0.0001×$50,000,000+$0.01×800,000=$13,000

At arrow 3-10, the interchange module adds this fee to the total fee forall credit-card transactions for the bookstore during the historicalperiod. Here assume the total fee was $15,000,000. Thus, the adjustedfee over the baseline historical period would be $15,013,000.

At arrow 3-11, the interchange module divides the adjusted fee of$15,013,000 by the total dollar volume for the bookstore over thehistorical period (e.g., $750,000,000). This provides an adjustedbaseline card-issuer interchange rate. If the fee based on the adjustedrate was $15,000,000 divided by $750,000,000, and thus 2.00%, theadjusted baseline rate is 2.00173333%.

At arrow 3-12, the interchange module stores the adjusted baseline ratein relational database 106 of FIG. 3. The interchange module may performthe actions of arrows 3-5 to 3-11 using a Transform portion of an ETLprocess by executing baseline ETL package 302 and arrow 3-12 using aLoad portion of this ETL process.

Determining Ways in which to Alter Interchange Categories

This section continues the above example in the context of determiningways in which to alter an interchange category assigned, such as theinterchange category assigned in a prior merchant-processor statementfor the example bookstore. Current or historic statements may be auditedand analyzed, though this particular example focuses on a historicstatement to describe an example way in which the tools analyzeinterchange categories to reduce interchange category fees charged nowand in future statements.

For this portion of the ongoing example, assume that some of thebookstore's merchants have different areas of business. Assume that onemerchant is a merchant through which a university bookstore receives andrecords transactions for textbook sales either in person or over thephone. This university merchant, even though associated with thenational bookstore chain, qualifies as operating in an educational areaof business, which affects the interchange categories that may beassigned to its transactions.

Prior to analyzing credit-card transaction data, however, the tools actto learn about interchange categories and their parameters. One exampleway in which the tools may do so is described below using categoryentity 122 and category module 120.

At arrow 4-1 in FIG. 4, category entity 122 receives interchangecategories currently being assigned by card issuers and parameters usedto determine which transactions should be assigned which interchangecategory. These are received from card issuer(s) 402 directly orindirectly (e.g., from their website(s) over the Internet or some othersource). As noted above, interchange categories often have parameters,some as many as four, e.g., a merchant's-area-of-business parameter,information-received-for-a-transaction parameters,how-information-was-received-for-the-transaction parameters, and atype-of-card-used parameter. Some categories have no or fewparameters—these are catch-all categories, which often have very poorrates (i.e., high fees).

The following interchange categories, along with their parameters, arecurrently used by VISA® and MasterCard® (and their member banks):

Primary Qualification Criteria VISA ® Primary qualification criteriaapplies to the card Interchange Interchange products listed in the CardType column unless Categories Rate Card Type otherwise indicated CPSRetail- 1.54% + Consumer Credit 1. Swipe card, obtain customer'ssignature Credit $0.10 CPS Retail- 1.03% + Non-PIN Debit 2. Authorizeand settle within 1 day Debit $0.15 CPS Rewards 1 1.65% + Rewards 3.Obtain and pass 1 valid electronic authorization $0.10 4. Whenprocessing a Non-PIN debit transaction the authorization and settlementamount must match. MCC's 4121 (taxicab & limousines, 5813 (Bars &Taverns), 7230 (Beauty & Barber Shops), 7298 (Health & Beauty Spas) areallowed to settle within 20% of the authorized amount. (Custom 5. Billpayment transactions that do not have Payment health or selectdeveloping market MCC's must send Service) a Market Specific Indicator(MSI) of “B”, ACI of “Y” processing code of “50” and MO/TO indicator of“01” for one time payment, “02” for recurring payment and “03” forinstallment payment. AVS is not required for bill payment transactionsCPS 1.54% + $0.10 Consumer Credit 1. Available to Restaurants (MCC 5812)and Fast Restaurant- Food Restaurants (MCC 5814) Credit CPS 1.19% +$0.10 Non-PIN Debit 2. Swipe card, obtain customer's signature; IfRestaurant- transaction is under $25 no signature required Debit CPSRewards 2 1.90% + Rewards 3. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronicauthorization $0.10 4. Authorize and settle within 1 day CPS Service1.43% + Consumer Credit 1. Available to Service Stations (MCC 5541)Station-Credit $0.10 CPS Service 0.70% + Non-PIN Debit 2. Swipe card,obtain customer's signature; If Station-Debit $0.17 transaction is under$25 no signature required CPS Rewards 1 1.65% + Rewards 3. Obtain andpass 1 valid electronic authorization $0.10 4. Authorize and settlewithin 1 day CPS 1.50% + Consumer Credit 1. Available to Automated FuelDispenser (MCC Automated $0.05 5542) Fuel Dispenser- Credit CPS 0.70% +Non-PIN Debit 2. AFD swipe card on a Card Activated Terminal Automated$0.17 (CAT) Fuel Dispenser- Debit CPS Rewards 1 1.65% + Rewards 3. Mustpass CAT level indicator of a “3” $0.10 4. Obtain and pass 1 validelectronic authorization ($1.00 status check) 5. $75.00 transactionlimit 6. Authorize and settle within 1 day CPS 1.24% + $0.05 ConsumerCredit 1. Available to Supermarkets (MCC 5411) Supermarket- Credit CPS1.03% + Non-PIN Debit 2. Swipe Card, obtain customer's signatureSupermarket- $0.15 ($0.35 Debit cap) CPS Rewards 1 1.65% + Rewards 3.Obtain and pass 1 valid electronic authorization $0.10 4. Authorize andsettle within 1 day 5. When accepting Non-PIN Debit transactions theauthorization amount and settlement amount must match; 6. To qualify forSupermarket debit must be a U.S issued Non-PIN Debit card CPS Retail1.85% + Consumer Credit 1. Magnetic stripe not readable, key-enterKey-Entered- $0.10 transaction, obtain customer's signature Credit CPSRetail 1.60% + Non-PIN Debit 2. Authorize and settle within 1 dayKey-Entered- $0.15 Debit CPS Rewards 2 1.90% + Rewards 3. Obtain andpass 1 valid electronic authorization $0.10 4. AVS required, Use AddressVerification (AVS) feature on terminal or software; zip code must match;and a POS indicator of “71”. If processing bill payment transactionsthat do not have health or select developing market MCC's must send aMarket Specific Indicator (MSI) of “B”, ACI of “Y”, processing code of“50” and MO/TO indicator of “01” for one time payment, “02” forrecurring payment and “03” for installment payment. AVS is required forbill payment transactions CPS Small 1.65% + Consumer 1. Available toRestaurants (MCC 5812) and Fast Ticket-Credit $0.04 Credit/Rewards FoodRestaurants (MCC 5814)Local Commuter Transport (MCC 4111), Taxi/LimoService (MCC 4121), Parking Lots (MCC 7523), Video Rental (MCC 7841),Movie Theater (MCC 7832), Bus Lines (MCC 4131), Toll & Bridge Fees (MCC4784), News Dealers & Newsstands (MCC 5994), Laundries (MCC 7211), DryCleaners (7216), Quick Copy (MCC 7338), Car Washes (7542) CPS Small1.55% + Non-PIN Debit 2. Swipe card, customer's signature not required;Ticket-Debit $0.04 merchants processing with a Card Activated Terminal(CAT) not eligible 3. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronic authorization4. Authorize and settle within 1 day 5. Transaction amount less than orequal to $15.00 Restaurants and Fast Food restaurants that takeSignature and Infinite cards are eligible for CPS Small Ticket whenclearing requirements are met CPS Retail 2 1.43% + Consumer 1. Availableto Government (MCC 9399, 9211, (Emerging $0.05 Credit/Rewards 9222),Schools (MCC 8220, 8211, 8299), Utilities Mkt)-Credit (MCC 4899)Insurance Companies (MCC 6300, 5960), Fuel Dealers (MCC 5983), ChildCare Services (MCC 8351), Charitable Organizations (MCC 8398), andDirect Marketing Subscription Merchants (MCC 5968). MCCs 5960 and 5968requires CPS/CNP or CPS/Ecommerce qualification CPS Retail 2 0.80% +Non-PIN Debit 2. Swipe or key-enter transaction, obtain (Emerging $0.25customer's signature when transaction is face-to-face Mkt)-Debit 3.Obtain and pass 1 valid electronic authorization 4. Must be CPSqualified 5. Bill payment transactions that do not have health or selectdeveloping market MCC's must send a Market Specific Indicator (MSI) of“B”, ACI of “Y”, processing code of “50” and MO/TO indicator of “01” forone time payment, “02” for recurring payment and “03” for installmentpayment. AVS is not required for bill payment transactions 6. Authorizeand create a sale within 1 day and settle within 2 days CPS Utility$0.75 Consumer 1. Available to utility merchants with MCC 4900 Program-Credit/Rewards (water, gas, electrical, sanitation) Credit CPS Utility$0.75 Non-PIN Debit 2. Must be registered with Visa ® with valid MVVProgram-Debit on account 3. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronicauthorization 4. Authorize and create a sale with 1 day and settlewithin 2 days 5. Must be CPS qualified; If not a bill paymenttransaction must submit a ACI of “R” to bypass AVS CPS Car 1.58% +Consumer Credit 1. Available to Car Rental merchants Rental Card $0.10Present-Credit CPS Car 1.36% + Non-PIN Debit 2. Swipe Card, obtaincustomer's signature Rental Card $0.15 Present-Debit CPS Rewards 21.90% + Rewards 3. 1 or more electronic authorization, with original$0.10 auth at settlement, 1 authorization reversal Transaction mustinclude: Rental Agreement#, Check-Out/Return Date, Duration, NoShow/Extra Charge indicator 4. 1 day to settle between the checkout/Return Date and the settlement date 5. Can settle within 15% of theauthorized amount; includes authorization reversal and incrementals CPSCar 1.58% + Consumer Credit 1. Available to Car Rental merchants RentalCard $0.10 Not Present- Credit CPS Car 1.36% + Non-PIN Debit 2.Key-entered transaction Rental Card $0.15 Not Present- Debit CPS Rewards2 1.90% + Rewards 3. 1 or more electronic authorization, with original$0.10 auth at settlement, 1 authorization reversal Transaction mustinclude: Rental Agreement#, Check-Out/Return Date, Duration, NoShow/Extra Charge indicator, Preferred Customer indicator (P). 4. 1 dayto settle between the Check Out/Return Date and the settlement date 5.Can settle within 15% of the authorized amount; includes authorizationreversal and incrementals CPS Hotel 1.58% + Consumer Credit 1. Availableto Lodging Card Present- $0.10 Credit CPS Hotel 1.36% + Non-PIN Debit 2.Swipe Card, obtain customer's signature Card Present- $0.15 Debit CPSRewards 2 1.90% + Rewards 3. 1 or more electronic authorization, withoriginal $0.10 auth at settlement, 1 authorization reversal Transactionmust include: Folio #, Check-In Date, Duration, No Show/Extra Chargeindicator 4. 1 day to settle between the check out and the settlementdate 5. Can settle within 15% of the authorized amount; includesauthorization reversal and incrementals CPS Hotel 1.58% + ConsumerCredit 1. Available to Lodging Card Not $0.10 Present-Credit CPS Hotel1.36% + Non-PIN Debit 2. Key-entered transaction Card Not $0.15Present-Debit CPS Rewards 2 1.90% + Rewards 3. 1 or more electronicauthorization, with original $0.10 auth at settlement, 1 authorizationreversal Transaction must include: Folio #, Check-In Date, Duration, NoShow/Extra Charge indicator, Preferred Customer indicator (P). 4. 1 dayto settle between the check out and the settlement date 5. Can settlewithin 15% of the authorized amount; includes authorization reversal andincrementals CPS Car 1.58% + Consumer Credit 1. Available to Car Rentalmerchants Rental E- $0.10 Commerce- Credit CPS Car 1.36% + Non-PIN Debit2. Key-entered transaction Rental E- $0.15 Commerce- Debit CPS Rewards 21.90% + Rewards 3. 1 or more electronic authorization, with original$0.10 auth at settlement, 1 authorization reversal Transaction mustinclude: Rental Agreement#, Check-Out/Return Date, Duration, NoShow/Extra Charge indicator, Preferred Customer indicator (P). 4. 1 dayto settle between the check out and the settlement date 5. Can settlewithin 15% of the authorized amount; includes authorization reversal andincrementals 6. E-Commerce transactions must perform CardholderAuthentication Verification Value (CAVV) and include an e-commerceindicator of a 5 or 6 CPS Hotel E- 1.58% + Consumer Credit 1. Availableto Lodging merchants Commerce- $0.10 Credit CPS Hotel E- 1.36% + Non-PINDebit 2. Key-entered transaction Commerce- $0.15 Debit CPS Rewards 21.90% + Rewards 3. 1 or more electronic authorization, with original$0.10 auth at settlement, 1 authorization reversal Transaction mustinclude: Folio #, Check-In Date, Duration, No Show/Extra Chargeindicator, Preferred Customer indicator (P). 4. 1 day to settle betweenthe check out and the settlement date 5. Can settle within 15% of theauthorized amount; includes authorization reversal and incrementals 6.E-Commerce transactions must perform Cardholder AuthenticationVerification Value (CAVV) and include an e-commerce indicator of a 5 or6 CPS Card Not 1.85% + Consumer Credit 1. Key-enter transaction; Ifprompted “is card Present-Credit $0.10 present” answer No CPS Card Not1.60% + Non-PIN Debit 2. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronicauthorization, 1 Present-Debit $0.15 authorization reversal allowed CPSRewards 2 1.90% + Rewards 3. Settle within 1 day (1 day to settlebetween ship $0.10 date and settlement date) 4. AVS required-use AVSfeature on terminal or software: enter up to first 5 numeric charactersof address then zip code 5. Transaction date must equal shipping dateand that date is no more than 7 days after authorization, 6.Authorization and settlement amount must match 7. Transaction mustinclude; order number, customer service phone number and MO/TO indicatorof a “01” and a POS indicator of “08” 8. Bill payment transactions thatdo not have health or select developing market MCC's must send a MarketSpecific Indicator (MSI) of “B”, ACI of “Y”, processing code of “50” andMO/TO indicator of “01” for one time payment, “02” for recurring paymentand “03” for installment payment. AVS is not required for bill paymenttransactions CPS E- 1.85% + Consumer Credit 1. Available to E-Commercemerchants; Key-enter Commerce $0.10 transaction Basic-Credit CPS E-1.60% + Non-PIN Debit 2. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronicauthorization, 1 Commerce $0.15 authorization reversal allowedBasic-Debit CPS Rewards 2 1.90% + Rewards 3. Settle within 1 day (1 dayto settle between ship $0.10 date and settlement date) 4. AVSrequired-use AVS feature on terminal or software: enter up to first 5numeric characters of address then zip code 5. Transaction date mustequal shipping date and that date is no more than 7 days afterauthorization 6. Authorization and settlement amount must match 7.Transaction must include; order number, customer service phone number 8.E-Commerce indicator of a “7” must be present; and a POS indicator of“59”. and Bill payment transactions that do not have health or selectdeveloping market MCC's must send a Market Specific Indicator (MSI) of“B”, ACI of “Y”, processing code of “50” and MO/TO indicator of “5”,“6”, or “7”. AVS is required for bill payment transactions CPS E-1.80% + Consumer 1. Available to E-Commerce merchants for key Commerce$0.10 Credit/Rewards entered transactions Preferred- Credit CPS E-1.55% + Non-PIN Debit 2. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronicauthorization, 1 Commerce $0.15 authorization reversal allowedPreferred- Debit 3. Settle within 1 day (1 day to settle between shipdate and settlement date) 4. Transaction date must equal shipping dateand that date is no more than 7 days after authorization 5.Authorization and settlement amount must match 6. Transaction mustinclude; order number, customer service phone number 7. Must havesecured E-Commerce indicator of “5” or “6” must be present and a POScondition code of “59” Must perform Cardholder AuthenticationVerification Value (CAVV). For bill payment transactions that do nothave health or select developing market MCC's must send a MarketSpecific Indicator (MSI) of “B”, ACI of “Y”, processing code of “50” andMO/TO indicator of “5”, “6”, or “7”. AVS is required for bill paymenttransactions CPS 1.75% + Consumer Credit 1. Available to Airlines &Railways Passenger $0.10 Transport- Credit CPS 1.60% + Non-PIN Debit 2.Swipe or key-enter transaction, obtain customer's Passenger $0.15signature when the transaction is face-to-face Transport- Debit CPSRewards 2 1.90% + Rewards 3. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronicauthorization $0.10 4. Settle within 7 days 5. Transaction must include;ticket number, sequence number, count and itinerary information 6.Transaction date must equal authorization date. CPS E- 1.75% + ConsumerCredit 1. Available to Airlines & Railways Commerce $0.10 PassengerTransport Preferred- Credit CPS E- 1.60% + Non-PIN Debit 2. Key-entertransaction Commerce $0.15 Passenger Transport Preferred- Debit CPSRewards 2 1.90% + Rewards 3. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronicauthorization $0.10 4. Settle within 7 days 5. Transaction must include;ticket number, sequence number, count and itinerary information 6.E-Commerce transactions must include E- Commerce indicator of “5” or“6”. Must perform Cardholder Authentication Verification Value (CAVV) 7.Transaction date must equal authorization date. Signature 2.30% +Signature 1. Applies to T&E merchants Card $0.10 Electronic 2. Swipecard, obtain customer's signature when transaction is face-to-face 3.Obtain and pass 1 valid electronic authorization 4. Authorize and settlewithin 1 day 5. Must be CPS qualified Signature 2.70% + Signature 1.Applies to T&E merchants; Swipe card or key- Card Standard $0.10 entertransaction, obtain customer's signature when transaction isface-to-face 2. Electronic authorization not required 3. Settle within29 days EIRF-Credit 2.30% + Consumer 1. Swipe or key-enter transaction,Get signature $0.10 Credit/Rewards when the transaction is face-to-faceEIRF-Debit 1.75% + Non-PIN Debit 2. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronicauthorization $0.20 Authorize sale through terminal/software ortelephone 3. Authorize and create a sale with 1 day and settle within 2days Consumer 2.70% + Consumer 1. Swipe or key-enter transaction, obtaincustomer's Standard- $0.10 Credit/Rewards signature when the transactionis face-to-face Credit Consumer 1.90% + Non-PIN Debit 2. Electronicauthorization not required Standard- $0.25 Debit 3. Settle within 29days Only level available for high-risk merchants and non- secureE-commerce transactions International 1.10% Consumer Credit- 1.Available to merchants with airline MCC 3000- Airline Non US Issued 3299or 4511 2. Swipe or key-enter transaction, Get signature when thetransaction is face-to-face 3. Must be CPS qualified Interregional 1.80%Signature-Non US 1. Available to merchants with airline MCC 3000-Signature Issued 3299 or 4511 Airline 2. Swipe or key-enter transaction,Get signature when the transaction is face-to-face 3. Must be CPSqualified Foreign 1.10% Consumer Credit 1. Swipe card, obtain customer'ssignature when Electronic the transaction is face-to-face 2. Obtain andpass 1 valid electronic authorization 3. Settle within 2 days 4. Appliesto Non-US merchants and US territory merchant locations Foreign 1.60%Consumer Credit 1. Swipe or key-enter transaction, obtain customer'sStandard signature when the transaction is face-to-face 2. Electronicauthorization not required 3. Settle within 29 days 4. Applies to Non-USmerchants and US territory merchant locations GSA 0.95% + GSAPurchasing 1. Swipe or key-enter transaction, obtain customer'sPurchasing $35.00 Card signature when the transaction is face-to-faceCard Large Ticket 2. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronic authorization 3.Non-T&E merchant 4. Transaction must be equal to or greater than $5,000and less than $8750. 5. Pass Level II and Level III Data 6. Must be CPSqualified GSA 1.35% GSA Purchasing 1. Swipe or key-enter transaction,obtain customer's Purchasing Card signature when the transaction isface-to-face Card Large Ticket I 2. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronicauthorization 3. Non-T&E merchant 4. Transaction amount equal to orgreater than $8750. 5. Pass Level II and Level III Data 6. Must be CPSqualified Purchasing 0.95% + Purchasing Card- 1. Available to Non-T&Emerchants Card Large $35.00 Non GSA Ticket 2. Must register with Visa 3.$1000 registration fee 4. Must have MVV (merchant verification value) onaccount 5. Swipe or key-enter transaction, obtain customer's signaturewhen transaction is face-to-face 6. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronicauthorization 7. Settle within 7 days 8. Transaction greater than orequal to $4,653.33; Pass Level II and Level III Data 9. Must Pass LevelII and Level III Data 10. Must be CPS qualified Commercial 1.80% +Purchasing Card- 1. Swipe or key-enter transaction, obtain Card LevelIII $0.10 Non GSA customer's signature when the transaction is face-to-face 2. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronic authorization 3. Non-T&Emerchant 4. Must be CPS qualified 5. Must pass Level III Data Commercial2.00% + Corporate 1. Swipe or key-enter transaction, obtain Card LevelII- $0.10 customer's signature when the transaction is face-to-Corporate face Commercial 2.00% + Business 2. Obtain and pass 1 validelectronic Card Level II- $0.10 authorization Business Commercial2.00% + Purchasing 3. Non-T&E merchant Card Level II- $0.10 Purchase 4.Must be CPS qualified; AVS required for Business cards 5. Must passLevel II Data 6. Customer Code required for Purchasing Card transactionsfrom fuel MCCs: 4468, 5499, 5541, 5542, and 5983 Commercial 2.20% +Corporate 1. Swipe or key-enter transaction, obtain customer's Card$0.10 signature when the transaction is face-to-face Electronic-Corporate Commercial 2.40% + Business 2. CPS requirements are not metCard $0.10 Electronic- Business Commercial 2.45% + Purchasing 3. Mustpass Level II Data Card $0.10 Electronic- Purchase Best Commercial Cardlevel for Touch-Tone merchants Commercial 2.20% + Corporate 1. Swipe orkey-enter transaction, obtain customer's Card $0.10 signature when thetransaction is face-to-face Electronic T&E- Corporate Commercial 2.40% +Business 2. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronic authorization Card $0.10Electronic T&E-Business Commercial 2.45% + Purchasing 3. T&Etransactions must be CPS qualified Card $0.10 Electronic T&E-PurchaseBest Commercial Card level for T&E Purchasing 2.45% + PurchasingCard- 1. CPS requirements are not met Card $0.10 Non GSA Electronic withData 2. Must pass Level III Data Purchasing 2.20% + Purchasing Card- 1.CPS requirements are not met...GSA and Card-Retail $0.10 GSA and Non-GSANon-GSA Fleet Purchasing card fuel transactions that Fleet meet Level IIand fuel data requirements 2. CPS qualified...GSA and Non-GSA FleetPurchasing card fuel transactions that do not meet Level 2 and fuel datarequirements Corporate- 2.20% + Corporate/Signature 1. Must be CPSqualified for CPS/Card Not Card Not $0.10 Preferred Present,CPS/Electronic Commerce Basic or Present Preferred, CPS/Retail 2, orCPS/Account Funding Business-Card 2.25% + Business 2. Level II datarequirements are not met Not Present $0.10 including tax-exempttransactions Purchasing- 2.40% + Purchasing 3. Must be a Non-TravelService MCC Card Not $0.10 Present Corporate- 2.20% +Corporate/Signature 1. Must be CPS qualified for CPS/Retail, Retail$0.10 Preferred CPS/Supermarket, CPS/Retail Key Entry, CPS/Small Ticket,CPS/Automated Fuel Dispenser, or CPS/Retail Service Station Business-2.20% + Business 2. Level II data requirements are not met Retail $0.10including tax-exempt transactions Purchasing- 2.20% + Purchasing 3. Mustbe a Non-Travel Service MCC Retail $0.10 Corporate- 2.10% +Corporate/Signature 1. Must be CPS qualified Business-to- $0.10Preferred Business Business- 2.10% + Business 2. Level II datarequirements are not met Business-to- $0.10 including tax-exempttransactions Business Purchasing- 2.10% + Purchasing 3. Limited tobusiness-to-business MCCs Business-to- $0.10 Business Commercial 2.70% +Corporate/Signature 1. Swipe or key-enter transaction, Get signatureCard $0.10 Preferred when the transaction is face-to-face Standard-Corporate Commercial 2.70% + Business 2. Electronic authorization notrequired Card $0.10 Standard- Business Commercial 2.70% + Purchasing 3.Settle within 29 days Card $0.10 Standard- Purchase 4. CPS requirementsare not met Credit −1.73% Consumer Credit 1. Non-Passenger Transportmerchants Voucher- Consumer Card-Credit Credit −1.31% Non-PIN Debit 2.Return credits apply to U.S. originating Voucher- transactions onlyConsumer Card-Debit Credit −2.24% All Commercial 1. Available to mostbusinesses, other than Voucher- passenger transport Commercial Card 2.Return credits apply to U.S. originating transactions only Credit −2.04%Consumer Credit 1. MO/TO-E-Commerce merchants Voucher- MO/TO & E-Commerce- Credit Credit −1.87% Non-PIN Debit 2. Return credits apply toU.S. originating Voucher- transactions only MO/TO & E- Commerce- Debit3. Must qualify 70% or more of the dollar volume in consumer sales atCard Not Present (MO/TO), E- Commerce Basic, or E-Commerce PreferredCredit −2.06% Consumer Credit 1. Passenger Transport merchants VoucherPassenger Transport- Credit Credit −1.18% Non-PIN Debit 2. All cardtypes eligible Voucher Passenger Transport- Debit Merit III-Credit1.64% + Consumer Credit 1. Swipe card, obtain customer's signature $0.10Merit III-Debit 1.05% + Non-PIN Debit 2. Obtain and pass 1 validelectronic authorization $0.15 Merit III-World 1.73% + World Card 3.Authorize and settle within 1 day Card $0.10 Merit III-World 2.20% +World Elite 4. Beauty Salon (MCC 7230) have 25% tolerance. Elite $0.10Restaurants (MCC 5812), Fast Food Restaurants (MCC 5814) and Bars (MCC5813) are exempt from transaction tolerance. All others have a 10%tolerance. Merit III- 1.64% + Enhanced 5. MO/TO MCC's 5960, 5962, 5964,5965, 5966, Enhanced $0.10 5967, 5968, or 5969 not eligible 6.Authorization and settlement MCC must match Merit I-Credit 1.95% +Consumer Credit 1. Key-entered transaction $0.10 Merit I-Debit 1.64% +Non-PIN Debit 2. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronic authorization $0.16Merit I-World 2.05% + World Card 3. Settle within 2 days. Card $0.10Merit I-World 2.50% + World Elite 4. Beauty Salon (MCC 7230) have 25%tolerance. Elite $0.10 Restaurants (MCC 5812), Fast Food Restaurants(MCC 5814), Bars (MCC 5813), Limousines and Taxis (4121), Airlines andNon-face-to-face are exempt from transaction tolerance. All others havea 10% tolerance. Merit I- 1.95% + Enhanced 5. Authorization andsettlement MCC must match Enhanced $0.10 Key Entered- 1.95% + ConsumerCredit 1. Key-entered transaction Credit $0.10 Key Entered- 1.64% +Non-PIN Debit 2. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronic authorization Debit$0.16 Key Entered- 2.05% + World Card 3. Settle within 1 day. World Card$0.10 Key Entered- 2.50% + World Elite 4. Restaurants (MCC 5812, 5814)and Bars (5813) World Elite $0.10 are exempt from transaction tolerance.All others can settle within 10%. Key Entered- 1.95% + Enhanced 5.Authorization and settlement MCC must match Enhanced $0.10 Merit I E-1.95% + Consumer Credit 1. Key-entered transaction Commerce- $0.10Credit Merit I E- 1.64% + Non-PIN Debit 2. Obtain and pass 1 validelectronic authorization Commerce- $0.16 Debit Merit I E- 2.05% + WorldCard 3. Settle within 2 days. Commerce- $0.10 World Card Merit I E-2.50% + World Elite 4. Non-face-to-face, Automated Fuel Dispenser,Commerce- $0.10 Airline and Mail/Phone Order (all identified by MCC)World Elite transactions have no restrictions on differences betweenauthorized and settled amount. E- Commerce - Exempt from amounttolerance if E- Commerce Indicators are present in auth and clearing.10% transaction tolerance if E-Commerce Indicators are not present.Merit I E- 1.95% + Enhanced 5. E-Commerce transactions must include CardCommerce- $0.10 Activated Terminal (CAT) level 6 in settlement Enhanced6. Authorization and settlement MCC must match UCAF 1.64% + ConsumerCredit 1. Key enter transaction “SecureCode”- $0.10 Credit UCAF 1.05% +Non-PIN Debit 2. Merchant is enrolled in UCAF and cardholder is“SecureCode”- $0.15 not Debit UCAF 1.73% + World Card 3. Available toall except MCC 5542-Automated Fuel “SecureCode”- $0.10 Dispenser WorldCard UCAF 2.20% + World Elite 4. Settle within 1 day “SecureCode”- $0.10World Elite UCAF 1.64% + Enhanced 5. Internet transactions must includeUCAF “SecureCode”- $0.10 Collection Indicator of “1” and a CAT level of“6” Enhanced 6. Authorization and settlement MCC must match with theexception of 4722 or 4511 (Universal 7. The approval code in theclearing transaction Cardholder must exactly match the approval code inthe Authentication authorization log record except when the Issuerfailed Field) to return a valid approval code, or when the a “Refer toCard Issuer” response is received 8. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronicauthorization 9. Security Code Indicator/Security Protocol Indicatingmerchant participating Full UCAF 1.74% + Consumer Credit 1. Key entertransaction “SecureCode”- $0.10 Credit Full UCAF 1.15% + Non-PIN Debit2. Merchant is enrolled in UCAF and transaction is “SecureCode”- $0.15fully authenticated by the cardholder entering their Debit SecureCodeFull UCAF 1.83% + World Card 3. Available to all except MCC5542-Automated Fuel “SecureCode”- $0.10 Dispenser World Card Full UCAF2.30% + World Elite 4. Settle within 1 day “SecureCode”- $0.10 WorldElite Full UCAF 1.74% + Enhanced 5. Internet transactions must includeUCAF “SecureCode”- $0.10 Collection Indicator of “2” and a CAT level of“6” Enhanced 6. Authorization and settlement MCC must match with theexception of 4722 or 4511 (Universal 7. The approval code in theclearing transaction Cardholder must exactly match the approval code inthe Authentication authorization log record except when the Issuerfailed Field) to return a valid approval code, or when the a “Refer toCard Issuer” response is received 8. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronicauthorization 9. Security Code Indicator/Security Protocol Indicatingmerchant participating Public Sector 1.55% + Consumer Credit 1.Available to Courts (MCC 9211), Fines (MCC $0.10 9222), Bail Bonds(9223), Taxes (MCC 9311), Government not elsewhere classified (MCC9399), Transportation (MCC 4111), Bridge/Road Fees & Tolls (MCC 4784),and Postal Services-Government only (MCC 9402) World Public 1.55% +World Card 2. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronic authorization; Sector$0.10 World Elite 1.55% + World Elite 3. Authorize and settle within 2days Public Sector $0.10 Public Sector- 1.55% + Enhanced 4.Authorization and settlement MCC must match Enhanced $0.10 5. Can settlewithin 10% of authorized amount Supermarket- 1.48% + Consumer Credit 1.Available to Supermarkets (MCC 5411) Credit $0.05 Supermarket- 1.05% +Non-PIN Debit 2. Swipe card, obtain customer's signature Debit $0.15($0.35 cap) Supermarket- 1.58% + World Card 3. Obtain and pass 1 validelectronic authorization World Card $0.05 Supermarket- 1.90% + WorldElite 4. Authorize and settle within 1 day World Elite $0.05Supermarket- 1.48% + Enhanced 5. Can settle within 10% of authorizedamount Enhanced $0.05 6. Must be registered with MasterCard ® and haveSupermarket (S) code 7. Authorization and settlement MCC must matchConvenience- 1.90% Consumer Credit 1. Available to Miscellaneous MovieTheaters (MCC Credit 7832), Fast Food Restaurants (MCC 5814), FoodStores (MCC 5499), and Limousines and Taxicabs (MCC 4121) Convenience-2.00% World Card 2. Swipe card or customer initiates a Card ActivatedWorld Card Terminal (CAT), obtain customer's signature when thetransaction is face-to-face Convenience- 2.00% World Elite 3. Iftransaction is under $25 and “Q” code on World Elite account nosignature required Convenience- 1.90% Enhanced 4. Obtain and pass 1valid electronic authorization Enhanced 5. Authorize and settle with in1 day 6. Require a CAT Level of “7” or space for Cardholder ActivatedTerminals 7. $25.00 transaction limit 8. Convenience Stores (MCC 5499)and Movie Theaters (MCC 7832) can settle within 10% of the authorizedamount for transactions over $10.00. Restaurants (MCC 5814) andLimousines and Taxis (MCC 4121) are exempt from transaction tolerance.9. Authorization and settlement MCC must match Passenger 1.83% +Consumer Credit 1. Available to Passenger Transport merchants Transport-$0.10 Credit Passenger 1.60% + Non-PIN Debit 2. Swipe or key-entertransaction, obtain customer's Transport- $0.15 signature when thetransaction is face-to-face Debit Passenger 2.30% + World Card 3. Obtainand pass 1 valid electronic authorization; Transport- $0.10 World CardPassenger 1.83% + Enhanced 4. Settle within 8 days Transport- $0.10Enhanced 5. Transaction must include passenger name, ticket number,issuing carrier and itinerary data in settlement 6. Authorization andsettlement MCC must match Consumer 2.75% + Consumer Credit 1. Swipe orkey-enter transaction, get customer Standard- $0.10 signature when thetransaction is face-to-face Credit Consumer 1.90% + Non-PIN Debit 2.Electronic authorization not required Standard- $0.25 Debit Consumer2.95% + World Card 3. Settle within 29 days Standard- $0.10 World CardConsumer 3.25% + World Elite Standard- $0.10 World Elite Consumer2.75% + Enhanced Standard- $0.10 Enhanced Petroleum- 1.90% ($0.95Consumer Credit 1. Available to Service Stations (MCC 5541) or Creditcap) Automated Fuel Dispensers (MCC 5542) Petroleum- 2.00% ($0.95 WorldCard 2. Swipe card, obtain customer's signature World Card cap)Petroleum- 2.00% ($0.95 World Elite 3. Authorize and settle within 1 dayWorld Elite cap) Petroleum- 1.90% ($0.95 Enhanced 4. Obtain and pass 1valid electronic authorization Enhanced cap) Service 0.70% + Non-PINDebit 5. MCC 5542 Magnetic Stripe read requires CAT Station-Debit $0.17($0.95 Level of ‘1’ or ‘2’. Transponder read requires CAT cap) Level of‘7’. Petroleum/ 0.70% + Non-PIN Debit 6. Authorization and settlementMCC must match Automated $0.17 ($0.95 Fuel cap) Dispenser- DebitEmerging 0.80% + Non-PIN Debit 1. Available to Government (MCC 9211,9222, 9223, Market Debit $0.25 9311, 9399), Schools (MCC 8211, 8220,8299), Utilities (MCC 4900, 4899), Insurance (MCC 6300, 5960),Transportation (MCC 4111), Bridge & Road Fees/Tolls (MCC 4784), PostalServices-Government only (MCC 9402) 2. Swipe or key-enter transaction,obtain customer's signature when the transaction is face-to-face 3.Obtain and pass 1 valid electronic authorization 4. Authorize and settlewithin 2 days 5. Authorization and settlement MCC must match Restaurant1.19% + Non-PIN Debit 1. Available to Restaurants (MCC 5812) & FastDebit $0.10 Food Restaurants (MCC 5814) 2. Swipe card, obtain customer'ssignature 3. Authorize and settle within 1 day 4. Obtain and pass 1valid electronic authorization 5. Authorization and settlement MCC mustmatch Small Ticket 1.55% + Non-PIN Debit 1. Available to Local CommuterTransport (MCC Debit $0.04 4111), Taxi/Limo Service (MCC 4121), ParkingLots (MCC 7523), Video Rental (MCC 7841), Theaters (MCC 7832), Misc FoodStores (MCC 5499), Restaurants (MCC 5812) & Fast Food Restaurants (MCC5814); Bus Lines (MCC 4131), Bridge & Road Tolls (MCC 4784), NewsDealers & Newsstands (MCC 5994), Laundry Services (MCC 7211), DryCleaners (MC 7216), Quick Copy, Reproduction & Blueprinting Services(MCC 7338), Car Washes (MCC 7542) 2. Swipe card, customer's signaturenot required 3. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronic authorization 4.Authorize and settle within 1 day 5. Restaurants (MCC 5812, 5814) andLimousines and Taxis (MCC4121) are exempt from transaction tolerance,others can settle within 10% 6. Must be equal to or less than $15.00 7.Authorization and settlement MCC must match Utility-Credit $0.75Consumer Credit 1. Swiped or Key-enter transaction Utility-Debit $0.75Non-PIN Debit 2. obtain and pass 1 valid electronic authorizationUtility-World $0.75 World Card 3. Available to utility merchants withMCC 4900 Card (water, gas, electrical, sanitation) Utility-World $0.75World Elite 4. Authorize and settle within 1 day Elite Utility- $0.75Enhanced 5. Can settle within 10% of authorized amount Enhanced 6. Mustbe registered with MasterCard 7. Authorization and settlement MCC mustmatch World 2.30% + World Card 1. Swipe or key-enter transaction, obtainMasterCard ® $0.10 customer's signature when the transaction is face-to-T&E face World Elite 2.75% + World Elite 2. Obtain and pass 1 validelectronic T&E $0.10 authorization 3. Settle within 2 days, Hotels, CarRental Agencies & Cruise Lines are exempt from timeliness edits 4.Authorization and settlement MCC must match 5. T&E merchants only 6.Vehicle Rental merchants must include the Rental Agreement number andReturn Location ID 7. MCC 5812 transaction must be greater than $60.00World 1.73% + World Card 1. Available to Restaurants (MCC 5812) with aMasterCard ® $0.10 transaction amount equal to or less than $60.00Restaurant World Elite 1.73% + World Elite 2. Swipe card, obtaincustomer's signature Restaurant $0.10 3. Authorize and settle within 1day 4. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronic authorization 5. Authorizationand settlement MCC must match World Elite 2.30% + World Elite 1.Available to Airline merchants (MCC 3000-3350, Airline $0.10 4511) 2.Swipe or key-enter transactions, obtain customer's signature when thetransaction is face-to- face 3. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronicauthorization 4. Settle within 2 days 5. Transaction must includepassenger name, ticket number, issuing carrier and itinerary data insettlement 6. Authorization and settlement MCC must match Foreign 1.37%Consumer Credit- 1. Swipe card, obtain customer's signature ElectronicNon US Issued 2. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronic authorization (IntlElectronic 3. Settle within 4 days Interchange- IEI) 4. Can settlewithin 10% of authorized amount 5. MO/TO MCC's 5960, 5962, 5964, 5965,5966, 5967, 5968, or 5969 not eligible 6. Authorization and settlementMCC must match Foreign 2.10% + Consumer Credit- 1. Swipe or key-entertransaction, get customer Standard $0.10 Non US Issued signature whenthe transaction is face-to-face (Intl Standard 2. Settle within 29 daysInterchange- ISI) Travel Premier 1.74% + Consumer Credit 1. Merchantswith a Non-Generic T&E MCC code Service $0.10 (except cruise lines MCC4411) (TIPS)-Credit Travel Premier 1.36% + Non-PIN Debit 2. Key-entertransaction on subsequent stays with Service $0.15 signature on file(TIPS)-Debit Travel Premier 1.74% + Enhanced 3. Obtain and pass 1 validelectronic authorization Service $0.10 (TIPS)- Enhanced 4. Settle within1 day 5. Registered with MasterCard, Preferred Customer indicator mustbe present 6. Transaction must include settlement detail addendum 7.Authorization and settlement MCC must match Service 1.15% + ConsumerCredit 1. Key-enter transaction Industries $0.05 Incentive Program(SIIP)-Credit Service 1.15% + Non-PIN Debit 2. Available to InsuranceServices (MCC 5960), Industries $0.05 Utility (MCC 4900), Insurance (MCC6300), and Incentive Cable & Telecommunication (MCC 4812, 4814, 4899)Program merchants (SIIP)-Debit Service 1.15% + World Card 3. Obtain andpass 1 valid electronic authorization Industries $0.05 Incentive Program(SIIP)-World Card Service 1.15% + World Elite 4. Authorize and settlewithin 1 day Industries $0.05 Incentive Program (SIIP)-World EliteService 1.15% + Enhanced 5. Can settle within 10% of authorized amountIndustries $0.05 Incentive Program (SIIP)- Enhanced 6. Must beregistered with MasterCard ® and Recurring Payments indicator must bepresent 7. Authorization and settlement MCC must match Commercial2.20% + $0.10 Commercial 1. Available to T&E merchants; Restaurants arenot T&E II eligible - Best Commercial card rate for T&E Commercial2.20% + $0.10 World Corporate 2. Swipe or key-enter transaction, obtaincustomer's T&E II - World signature when transaction is face-to-faceCorporate Commercial 2.35% + $0.10 World Business 3. Obtain and pass 1valid electronic authorization T&E II - World Business Commercial2.20% + $0.10 World Elite 4. Settle within 2 days, Airline 8 days T&EII - World Corporate Elite Corporate Commercial 2.35% + $0.10 WorldElite 5. Must pass industry specific T&E II criteria; folio #, T&E II -World Business rental agreement #, check-in/pick up and Elite Businesscheckout/return dates, duration, no show indicator/extra chargeindicator 6. Authorization and settlement MCC must match 7. Exempt fromamount tolerance Commercial 2.35% Commercial 1. Available to T&Emerchants T&E I Commercial 2.35% World Corporate 2. Swipe or key-entertransaction, obtain customer's T&E I - World signature when transactionis face-to-face Corporate Commercial 2.50% World Business 3. Obtain andpass 1 valid electronic authorization T&E I - World Business Commercial2.35% World Elite 4. Settle within 2 days, Airline 8 days T&E I - WorldCorporate Elite Corporate Commercial 2.50% World Elite 5. Authorizationand settlement MCC must match T&E I - World Business Elite Business 6.Exempt from amount tolerance T&E Large 2.00% Consumer World 1. Availableto T&E merchants Ticket - World Elite Elite 2. Swipe or key-entertransaction, obtain customer's signature when transaction isface-to-face 3. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronic authorization 4 Mustbe equal to or greater than $2500.00 5. Settle within 2 days Commercial1.75% Commercial 1. Swipe or Key-enter transaction Data Rate IIICommercial 1.75% World Corporate 2. Non-T&E merchant Data Rate III -World Corporate Commercial 1.90% World Business 3. Obtain and pass 1valid electronic authorization Data Rate III - World Business Commercial1.75% World Elite 4. Must submit a valid tax id Data Rate III -Corporate World Elite Corporate Commercial 1.90% World Elite 5. Settlewithin 2 days Data Rate III - Business World Elite Business 6. Must passLevel II and Level III Data 7. Authorization and settlement MCC mustmatch Commercial 1.20% + Commercial 1. Swipe or Key-enter transaction,obtain customer's Large Ticket I $40.00 signature when transaction isface-to-face Commercial 1.20% + World Corporate 2. Non-T&E merchantsLarge Ticket I - $40.00 World Corporate Commercial 1.35% + WorldBusiness 3. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronic authorization LargeTicket I - $40.00 World Business Commercial 1.20% + World Elite 4. Mustsubmit a valid tax id Large Ticket I - $40.00 Corporate World EliteCorporate Commercial 1.35% + World Elite 5. Settle within 1 day LargeTicket I - $40.00 Business World Elite Business 6. Transaction must begreater than $5,333.33 and less than/equal to $25,000 7. Can settlewithin 25% of the authorized amount. AFD (MCC 5542), Bars (MCC 5813),and Fast Food Restaurants (MCC 5814) are exempt from the tolerance test.8. Must pass Level II & III Data 9. Authorization and settlement MCCmust match Commercial 1.20% + Commercial 1. Swipe or Key-entertransaction, obtain customer's Large Ticket II $40.00 signature whentransaction is face-to-face Commercial 1.20% + World Corporate 2.Non-T&E merchants Large Ticket II - $40.00 World Corporate Commercial1.35% + World Business 3. Obtain and pass 1 valid electronicauthorization Large Ticket II - $40.00 World Business Commercial 1.20% +World Elite 4. Must submit a valid tax id Large Ticket II - $40.00Corporate World Elite Corporate Commercial 1.35% + World Elite 5. Settlewithin 1 day Large Ticket II - $40.00 Business World Elite Business 6.Transaction must be greater than $25,000.00 but less than/equal to$100,000 7. Can settle within 25% of the authorized amount. AFD (MCC5542), Bars (MCC 5813), and Fast Food Restaurants (MCC 5814) are exemptfrom the tolerance test. 8. Must pass Level II & III Data 9.Authorization and settlement MCC must match Commercial 1.20% +Commercial 1. Swipe or Key-enter transaction, obtain customer's LargeTicket $40.00 signature when transaction is face-to-face III Commercial1.20% + World Corporate 2. Non-T&E merchants Large Ticket $40.00 III -World Corporate Commercial 1.35% + World Business 3. Obtain and pass 1valid electronic authorization Large Ticket $40.00 III - World BusinessCommercial 1.20% + World Elite 4. Must submit a valid tax id LargeTicket $40.00 Corporate III - World Elite Corporate Commercial 1.35% +World Elite 5. Settle within 1 day Large Ticket $40.00 Business III -World Elite Business 6. Transaction must be greater than $100,000.00 7.Can settle within 25% of the authorized amount. AFD (MCC 5542), Bars(MCC 5813), and Fast Food Restaurants (MCC 5814) are exempt from thetolerance test. 8. Must pass Level II & III Data 9. Authorization andsettlement MCC must match Commercial 2.05% Commercial 1. Swipe orkey-enter transaction; obtain customers Data Rate II signature when thetransaction is face to face Commercial 2.05% World Corporate 2. Obtainand pass 1 valid electronic authorization Data Rate II - World CorporateCommercial 2.20% World Business 3. Must submit a valid tax id Data RateII - World Business Commercial 2.05% World Elite 4. Settle within 2 daysfor Commercial Data Rate II Data Rate II - Corporate World EliteCorporate Commercial 2.20% World Elite 5. Non-T&E merchant Data RateII - Business World Elite Business 6. Must pass Level II Data 7.Authorization and settlement MCC must match 8. Can settle within 10% ofauthorized amount Commercial 2.05% Commercial 1. Swipe or key-entertransaction; obtain customers Face to Face signature when thetransaction is face to face Commercial 2.05% World Corporate 2. Obtainand pass 1 valid electronic authorization Face to Face - World CorporateCommercial 2.20% World Business 3. Must submit a valid tax id Face toFace - World Business Commercial 2.05% World Elite 4. Settle within 1day for Commercial Face-to-Face Face to Face - Corporate World EliteCorporate Commercial 2.20% World Elite 5. Non-T&E merchant Face toFace - Business World Elite Business 6. Must pass Level II Data 7.Authorization and settlement MCC must match 8. Can settle within 10% ofauthorized amount Commercial 2.65% + Commercial 1. Swipe or key-entertransaction Data Rate I $0.10 Commercial 2.65% + World Corporate 2.Obtain and pass 1 valid electronic authorization Data Rate I - $0.10World Corporate Commercial 2.80% + World Business 3. Must submit a validtax id Data Rate I - $0.10 World Business Commercial 2.65% + World Elite4. Non-T&E merchant Data Rate I - $0.10 Corporate World Elite CorporateCommercial 2.80% + World Elite 5. Settle within 2 days Data Rate I -$0.10 Business World Elite Business 6. Authorization and settlement MCCmust match Commercial 2.70% + Commercial 1. Swipe or key-entertransaction, obtain customer's Standard $0.10 signature when transactionis face-to-face Commercial 2.70% + World Corporate 2. Electronicauthorization not required Standard - $0.10 World Corporate Commercial2.85% + World Business 3. Settle within 29 days Standard - $0.10 WorldBusiness Commercial 2.70% + World Elite Standard - $0.10 Corporate WorldElite Corporate Commercial 2.85% + World Elite Standard - $0.10 BusinessWorld Elite Business International 1.55% Purchasing/Fleet- 1. Swipe orkey-enter transaction, obtain customer's Purchasing Non US Issuedsignature when transaction is face-to-face Data Rate II 2. Obtain andpass 1 valid electronic authorization 3. Settle within 4 days 4. Mustpass Level II Data 5. Fleet Cards at Fuel MCC 5541, 5542 or 7511 are noteligible International 0.75% + Purchasing/Fleet- 1. Swipe or key-entertransaction, obtain customer's Purchasing $30.00 Non US Issued signaturewhen transaction is face-to-face Large Ticket 2. Obtain and pass 1 validelectronic authorization 3. Settle within 29 days 4. Must be a non T&Emerchant 5. Transaction must be equal to or greater than $5,333.33International 2.15% Commercial-Non 1. Swipe or key-enter transaction,obtain customer's Commercial US Issued signature when transaction isface-to-face Card 2. Settle within 29 days Consumer −1.72% Non-PINDebit 1. Must be a Non-PIN Debit card, Mail Debit Refund Order/Telephoneor E-Commerce--non-transaction. Group 1 Transactions must be (identifiedby MCC) an MCC other than Airline or Passenger Railway Consumer −1.68%Non-PIN Debit 1. Must be a Non-PIN Debit card. Transactions must DebitRefund be (identified by MCC) Airline or Passenger Railway Group 2Consumer −1.40% Non-PIN Debit 1. Must be a Non-PIN Debit card. Thisprogram is for Debit Refund face-to-face transactions Group 3Transactions must be (identified) an MCC other than Mail/TelephoneOrder, Airline or Passenger Railway. Consumer −2.42% Consumer Credit 1.Must be a World MasterCard; Transactions must Credit Refund be(identified by MCC) Airline, Automobile/Vehicle Group 1 Rental,Hotels/Motels, Passenger Railways, Cruise Lines, Travel Agencies,Restaurants, Other Lodging, Automobile Rental Agency, Truck and UtilityTrailer Rentals Consumer −2.09% Consumer Credit 1. Must be a consumercard; Transactions must be Credit Refund (identified by MCC)Mail/Telephone Order, Utilities Group 2 and Travel Agencies Consumer−1.95% Consumer Credit 1. Must be a consumer card; Transactions must beCredit Refund (identified by MCC) Airline Professional Services, Group 3Drug Stores, Recreation, Education, Repair Shops, Other Services orRestaurants/Bars Consumer −1.82% Consumer Credit 1. Must be a consumercard; Transactions must be Credit Refund (identified by MCC)Automobile/Vehicle Rental, Group 4 Other Retail, Gas Stations, Hardware,Health Care, Sporting-Toy Stores, Discount Stores, Clothing Stores,Other transport services. Consumer −1.73% Consumer Credit 1. Must be aconsumer card; Transactions must be Credit Refund (identified by MCC)Hotel/Motel, Department Stores, Group 5 Electric-Appliance, InteriorFurnishings, Vehicles, Quasi Cash, Food Stores-Warehouse Corporate−2.37% Commercial 1. Must be a commercial card; Transactions must beCredit Refund (identified by MCC) Quasi Cash, Other Transport, Group 1Food Stores-Warehouse, Discount Stores, Drug Stores, Recreation,Restaurants/Bars, Utilities Corporate −2.30% Commercial 1. Must be acommercial card; Transactions must be Credit Refund (identified by MCC)Automobile/Vehicle Rental, Group 2 Hotel/Motel, Sporting-Toys Stores,Education, Repair Shops, Travel Agencies, Vehicle Corporate −2.21%Commercial 1. Must be a commercial card; Transactions must be CreditRefund (identified by MCC) Airline, Other Retail, Mail/ Group 3Telephone Order, Health Care, Professional Services, Other Services,Hardware Corporate −2.16% Commercial 1. Must be a commercial card;Transactions must be Credit Refund (identified by MCC) Department Store,Electric- Group 4 Appliances, Gas Stations, Interior Furnishings

Areas of business, types of information received, and how thatinformation is received are described in the column labeled “PrimaryQualification Criteria”. The fourth parameter is set forth in its owncolumn, labeled “Card Type”. Note that types of information that may bereceived include, for example, a card number, a card security codenumber, a zip code, a billing address, a debit security code, having anaddress for the customer included with the transaction, and a customer'ssignature. The types of ways in which information may be receivedinclude, for example, in person (e.g., card present or not present),electronically over the Internet, over the phone, through a card-swipecard reader, through a key-faub reader, through manual entry by anon-card holder, and through card-holder entry into a keypad. Types ofcards used include, for example, a credit card, a debit card, a keyfaub, and an account without a physical device.

As is apparent from the above table, the depth and breadth of factorsthat may go into how a card issuer assigns interchange categories can bequite complex.

Some example interchange categories are illustrated in FIG. 5, whichshows the categories and parameters used in assigning them. Thesecategories include, all for credit cards rather than debit, VISA® CPSRetail 502, VISA® CPS Retail Key-Entered 504, VISA® CPS Card-Not-Present506, VISA® CPS Retail 2 Emerging Markets 508, and VISA® EIRF 510. Asimplification of the parameters used for each are shown and dividedinto four groups. The categories include a merchant's area of business“A”, information received for transaction “B”, how information wasreceived “C”, and type of card used “D”. Each category's parameters arelabeled or referred to herein separately (e.g., category 502's area ofbusiness is 502 a, category 506's type of card used is 506 d, and etc.).These categories will be used as the example unfolds.

At arrow 4-2, the category entity determines, for each business type,which higher-cost interchange categories may be replaced by one or morelower-cost interchange categories. Some of the parameters are set by thecategory entity as ones that do not easily change, such as the type ofcard used and whether the card was present or not (e.g., swiped at themerchant or entered via an Internet sale). This aids in building a map,for each business area, of higher-cost interchange categories that maybe replaced by lower-cost interchange categories by changing parametersthat either are relatively easy for a merchant to change or that amerchant is willing to change (e.g., requiring that no debit cards beused is often not acceptable to a merchant because it may reduce sales).Note that there may be intermediate levels in this map; some interchangecategories that are lower cost in relation to one higher-costinterchange category may themselves be considered a higher-costinterchange category in relation to some other, still lower-costinterchange category(s).

In this example the business type is retail education, that is,merchants that accept retail sales in a not-for-profit educationalentity. In this business area, there are many interchange categoriesthat may potentially be altered to lower fees. Particular examples ofthese are described later below.

At arrow 4-3, the category entity determines parameter changes that needto be implemented to have transactions currently assigned a higher-costinterchange category to instead be assigned a lower-cost interchangecategory. As noted above, these parameters may include some but not allparameters or types of parameters.

For example, assume that one of many interchange categories that may bereplaced for lower-cost categories is the VISA® EIRF interchangecategory. This category may be replaced by any one of the fourcategories listed above and shown in FIG. 5. The parameters needed tochange this category are shown with dashed-line arrows in FIG. 5. Theparameter changes include one or more of the following: getting asignature; responding “No” to a prompt asking if the card is present;and taking into account an education area of business.

At this point, the category module, through the category entity, knowswhich interchange categories may be replaced by lower-cost interchangecategories for each potential business area for which a merchant may bequalified and the parameters needed to affect this change. With thisinformation, the tools proceed to arrow 4-4.

At arrow 4-4, the category entity receives or determines a correct areaof business for a particular merchant. The category entity here includesinvolvement of a person knowing details about the merchant at issue. Insome cases, however, the category entity may determine this implicitlybased on interchange categories assigned to the merchant by the cardissuer. Basing this determination on information from the merchantprocessor or based on the card issuer's determination, however, mayreduce the effectiveness of the tools auditing functions.

In this example the category entity determines, based on informationfrom the national bookstore chain indicating that the merchant sellstextbooks for a university bookstore, that the merchant operates in aRetail Education area of business. If this business area is notcurrently being assigned by the merchant processor, the category modulemay indicate this to a user so that the user can ask for the area ofbusiness to be changed. In this case the merchant was incorrectlyassigned as a retail (not education) area of business in its historicmerchant-processor statements and so qualifies for the VISA® CPS Retail2 Emerging Markets interchange category without implementing a change toits procedures. Instead, the merchant must have its merchant processorchange its area of business with regard to the card issuer.

Any of the prior actions of arrows 4-1 to 4-4 may be performed in thecategory entity as software or a person or both. Thus, a person orsoftware may determine and provide to the category module the currentinterchange categories, their parameters, fees, and which can bereplaced for each business area. If the category entity is software, itprovides the results of arrows 4-1 to 4-4 to the category module throughAPIs, other software-to-software communication manners, or simply bybeing integral with the category module. If the category entity is aperson, the category entity provides the results by data entry or otherformat usable by the category module. The category entity may also beboth software and a person interacting, such as by the category entityretrieving parameters and the person deciding on the correct businessarea for a particular merchant. This communication is sent and receivedat arrow 4-5.

At arrow 4-6, the category module receives an interchange categoryassigned to transactions received by the merchant (e.g., in any of themerchant-processor statements in the last 12 months). Here the categorymodule receives a merchant processor statement for the merchant, thefollowing portion of which is stored in relational database 106 andprovided to the category module:

NUMBER AMOUNT DESCRIPTION TOTAL  10 586.95 VISA ® STANDARD (2.63%XSALES + $.10XITEMS) 16.44 350 12,452.24 VISA ® RTL CK DB (1.05%XSALES + $.15XITEMS) 183.25 461 27,404.65 VISA ® CPS RETAIL (1.54%XSALES + $.10XITEMS) 468.13 570 34,317.10 VISA ® EIRF (2.30% XSALES +$.10XITEMS) 846.29  16- 662.12- VISA ® CREDIT CONSUMER CARD @ 1.67%11.06-  01- 6.37- VISA ® CREDIT COMMERCIAL CARD @ 2.24% .14-  471,716.92 VISA ® EIRF DB (1.75% XSALES + $.20XITEMS) 39.45  02 92.90VISA ® STANDARD DB(1.90% XSALES + $.25XITEMS) 2.27  09- 257.19- VISA ®CV-CNSR DB (1.31% XSALES) 3.37- 52,203.43 VISA ® DUES AND ASSESSMENTS(.0925% XSALES) 48.29  10 1,577.69 MC STANDARD (2.70% XSALES +$.10XITEMS) 43.60 522 32,284.36 MC MERIT 3 (1.54% XSALES + $.10XITEMS)549.38  06 1,579.45 MC KEY ENTERED (1.90% XSALES + $.10XITEMS) 30.61  813,821.95 MC CORP DATA RT1(2.65% XSALES + $.10XITEMS) 109.38  16 604.03MC STANDARD DB (1.90% XSALES + $.25XITEMS) 15.48  10 203.57 MC KEY ENTERDB (1.64% XSALES + $.16XITEMS) 4.94 929 37,417.09 MC MERIT 3 DB (1.05%XSALES + $.15XITEMS) 532.23  19- 371.74- MC CONS DB RF 3 @1.40% 5.20- 19- 668.64- MC CONS CR RF 4 @1.77% 11.83-  02- 139.68- MC CORP CR RF 3@2.15% 3.00- 77,488.14 MC DUES AND ASSESSMENTS(.095% XSALES) 73.61  656,311.88 VISA ® BUS ELECT (2.20% XSALES + $.10XITEMS) 145.36  05 206.18VISA ® BUS STD (2.70% XSALES + $.10XITEMS) 6.07 296 DISCOVERAUTHORIZATIONS @ 15 CENTS 44.40

Also at arrow 4-6, the category module receives credit-card transactiondata for transactions assigned the higher-cost interchange category(shown above). Based on the analysis by the category entity for anymerchant having this business type, the category module now acts on thisinformation based on the merchant having transactions assigned one ofthose higher-cost interchange categories.

Here the university bookstore merchant has 570 transactions totaling$34,317.10 and was charged $846.29 in interchange fees for the VISA®EIRF category. The category module also knows which lower-costinterchange categories may replace the EIRF category, namely VISA® CPSRetail, VISA® CPS Retail Key-Entered, VISA® CPS Card-Not-Present, andVISA® CPS Retail 2 Emerging Markets. The category entity determines thatthe other four categories shown in FIG. 5 may potentially replace VISA®EIRF, all four of which have lower fees.

The category entity determined, at arrow 4-2, that each of these fourhave lower fees based on their published fees rates—e.g., that EIRFcosts 2.30% and $0.10 per transaction but that VISA® CPS Retail 502costs 1.54% and $0.10 per transaction, VISA® CPS Key-Entered 504 costs1.85% and $0.10 per transaction, VISA® CPS Card-Not-Present 506 costs1.85% and $0.10 per transaction, and VISA® CPS Retail 2 Emerging Markets508 costs 1.43% and $0.05 per transaction.

The category entity also determined at arrow 4-2 that each of thesebetter categories is one in which the merchant has a relatively highamount of control over the parameters. The merchant is unlikely to beable to change a parameter from being a debit card to being a creditcard unless the merchant wants to require that no debit cards or nocredit cards be received. This is not often something a merchant iswilling to do because it adversely affects sales. Thus, the categoryentity determines that the EIRF category may be replaced by any of theother four categories based on the information received and/or how theinformation is received. These parameters are often easier for amerchant to control and also ones that the merchant is willing toimplement. Here the category entity includes decision making by askilled person, though this decision-making may also be made based onalgorithms approximating the skilled person's assessment.

At arrow 4-3, the category entity determined what parameter needs to bechanged to alter the current category assigned to one of the betterpotential categories. As noted above, some of this analysis may alreadybe done by the entity deciding to include only those categories havingparameters that the merchant can easily change or is willing to change.

The VISA® EIRF category is assigned to cards that are classifiedconsumer credit (e.g., non-business credit cards) where the informationreceived and how it was received is not taken into consideration. Herethe category entity determined that if the transaction was taken inperson that, by requiring a signature with either a card swipe (VISA®CPS Retail) or a manually keyed in (VISA® CPS Retail Key-Entered), thetransaction could instead by assigned these other categories. If, on theother hand, the transaction was taken without the person and cardpresent, that by requiring a person handling the merchant (e.g., thedevice or account through which card numbers are entered) to response“No” to a query asking “Is the card present” that the transaction may beassigned a VISA® CPS Card-Not-Present category. Further, than VISA® EIRFmay be replaced by the VISA® CPS Retail 2 Emerging Markets categorysimply by having the merchant processor change the business area for themerchant.

These parameter changes are illustrated in FIG. 5 with dashed arrows.Each dashed arrow representing a potential parameter change that wouldpermit a lower-cost interchange category to be assigned to transactionsrather than EIRF.

At arrow 4-6 the category module received credit-card transaction datafor transactions assigned the higher-cost interchange category, such asfrom relational database 106. Based on the analysis by the categoryentity for any merchant having this business type, the category modulenow acts on this information based on the merchant having transactionsassigned one of those higher-cost interchange categories.

At arrow 4-7, the category module calculates a potential fee savings ifthe transactions assigned the higher-cost interchange category wereinstead assigned the lower-cost interchange category. Here the categorymodule calculates a fee savings between the VISA® EIRF category and eachof the other four categories:

VISA® EIRF Fees are:

570*$0.10+$34,317.10*2.3%=$57.00+789.29=$846.29

CPS Retail Potential Fees and Savings would be:

570*$0.10+$34,317.10*1.54%=$57.00+$528.48=$585.48

$846.29−$585.48=$260.81 (savings)

CPS Retail Key-Entered Potential Fees and Savings would be:

570*$0.10+$34,317.10*1.85%=$57.00+$634.86=$691.87

$846.29−$691.87=$154.42 (savings)

CPS Card-Not-Present Potential Fees and Savings would be:

570*$0.10+$34,317.10*1.85%=$57.00+$634.86=$691.87

$846.29−$691.87=$154.42 (savings)

CPS Retail 2 Emerging Markets Potential Fees and Savings would be:

570*$0.10+$34,317.10*1.43%=$57.00+$490.73=$547.73

$846.29−$547.73=$298.56 (savings)

At arrow 4-8, the category module provides these potential savings andthe parameter changes needed to change the EIRF category to one of thebetter categories. The category module provides this information toreport generator module 118, which in turn lists the parameter changesneeded and the potential savings associated with each. For the merchantprocessor statement above, the savings and parameter changes are:

Swipe Card (if needed) and Get Signature, Potential Savings would be:

-   -   $260.81

Key-Entered Card Number (if needed) and Get Signature, Potential Savingswould be:

-   -   $154.42

Answer “No” to Query, Potential Savings would be:

-   -   $154.42

Alter Business Area to “Retail Education”, Potential Savings would be:

-   -   $298.56

At this point various potential fee savings may be proposed to themerchant, such as ways to upgrade some types of future transactions fromunfavorable (higher-cost) categories to more-favorable (lower-cost)categories. VISA® EIRF can be upgraded to the first three categoriesabove by changing order-intake procedures. The tools may determineactual fees saved (not potential) based on these and other changes bycomparing the adjusted baseline card-issuer interchange rate for theclient with a current rate being assessed after implemented suggestedparameter changes. Determining actual savings is described in thefollowing section.

The tools may perform actions 4-6 and 4-7 many times, such as once foreach interchange category that may be replaced by a lower-costinterchange category. If the national bookstore chain has 2,000merchants and each has been assigned five categories that could beimproved, the tools may perform these actions 10,000 times and for manydifferent business areas. After performing these actions the tools mayprovide a detailed report on the potential savings available to eachmerchant or all the client's merchants based on savings for all itsmerchants.

In the following section, the tools find savings between an adjustedbaseline interchange rate and a current rate. The current rate, as usedtherein, may be the rate after the suggested parameters changes are madeby the client through its merchants. In so doing, the suggested changesprovided by the category module may, when implemented, save a client asubstantial amount of money in fees.

Determining Card-Issuer Interchange-Fee Savings

This section continues the above example in the context of credit-cardtransaction data being made available to interchange module 116 todetermine a savings between an adjusted baseline interchange rate and acurrent rate. This data is made available following its being providedin FIG. 2, only in this section the interchange module determines acurrent rate rather than a baseline rate.

At arrow 6-1 in FIG. 6, interchange module 116 extracts card-issuerinterchange fees and dollar volumes on which the fees were assessed forall of the bookstore's 2,000 merchants over a current billing cycle. Theinterchange module uses each merchant's identifier (e.g., “932734932”)and each billing cycle's end date (e.g., Apr. 30, 2007) to find thisinformation in relational database 106. Consider a portion of amerchant-processor statement for the current billing period and for thesame merchant described in FIGS. 2 and 3 above.

FEES NUMBER AMOUNT DESCRIPTION TOTAL SUPPORT PACKAGE 5.95 02 14.00TERMINAL FEE 28.00 04 80.11 VISA ® STANDARD 2.50 (2.63% XSALES +$.10XITEMS) . . . 297  DISCOVER 44.55 AUTHORIZATIONS @ 15 CENTS OTHERFEES DUE 1,991.20 DISCOUNT DUE 304.23 OTHER FEES DUE 1,991.20

At arrow 6-2, the interchange module adds up all the fees and dollarvolumes on which interchange fees are charged for each merchant over thecurrent billing cycle. Here the “Discover Authorization” fees and theterminal fees are excluded, as they are not an amount on which acard-issuer interchange fee is charged.

Thus, interchange fees for the particular merchant during the currentbilling cycle are:

Interchange Fees=$1,991.20−28.00−44.55=$1,918.65

The interchange module does this again for every merchant. By so doing,the interchange module determines the client's total fees and dollarvolume on which the interchange fees were based for the current billingcycle.

At arrow 6-3, the interchange module divides the total interchange feesby this dollar volume to provide a current card-issuer interchange ratefor the current billing cycle for the bookstore. For the particularmerchant above, assume that the interchange dollar volume is$148,411.43. Thus, the current card-issuer interchange rate is:

Merchant's Current Rate=$1,918.65/$148,411.43=1.29%

For the bookstore, assume that the current total interchange fees are$598,000 and total dollar volume on which these fees were charged is$31,000,000. The bookstore's current card-issuer interchange rate is:

Bookstore's Current Rate=$598,000/$31,000,000=1.93%

At arrow 6-4, the interchange module determines a rate differencebetween the bookstore's current rate and the bookstore's adjustedbaseline card-issuer interchange rate by subtracting the current ratefrom the adjusted rate. The bookstore's rate difference is:

Bookstore's Rate Difference=2.00173333%−1.93%=0.0717333%

At arrow 6-5, the interchange module determines the interchange feesavings by multiplying the bookstore's rate difference by its dollarvolume on which interchange fees were applied. The savings are:

Bookstore's Savings=$31,000,000×0.0717333%=$22,237.32

At arrow 6-6, the interchange module provides the bookstore's savings toreport generator module 118. The report generator module receives thesavings and generates a report that is human readable, shown at arrow6-7 and with report 602. This report may be a window on a computerscreen (e.g., a graphical user interface) or a PDF file for reading on acomputer screen or printing and viewing on paper. This report generatormay also, in conjunction with the interchange module or independently,multiply the savings by a particular percentage, such as onecontractually agreed-on by the client (e.g., the bookstore) and the userof the interchange module to assess a payment for services rendered inreducing interchange fees.

The interchange module performs the actions of arrows 6-1 to 6-5 using asavings ETL package 604, shown included in the interchange module inFigure 6. The act of extracting card-issuer interchange fees and dollarvolumes of arrow 6-1 is performed by an Extract portion of an ETLprocess caused by the computing device executing the savings ETLpackage. The acts of adding up all the fees and dollar volumes, dividingthe total interchange fees by this dollar volume, subtracting thecurrent rate from the adjusted rate, and multiplying the bookstore'srate difference by its dollar volume on which interchange fees wereapplied, at arrows 6-2, 6-3, 6-4, and 6-5, respectively, are performedby a Transform portion of this ETL process. The saving ETL package alsoprovides the bookstore's savings to the report generator module asdescribed at arrow 6-6 using a Load portion of the ETL process.

Auditing Interchange Categories

This section sets forth one example way in which the tools auditinterchange categories assigned to credit-card transactions. Itcontinues the example of the bookstore, but may be separate from orintegral with the Building and Adjusting Baseline Interchange Rates,Auditing and/or Determining Ways in which to Alter InterchangeCategories, and Determining Card-Issuer Interchange-Fee Savingssections.

In this example, interchange module 116 determines, automatically andwithout user interaction, whether interchange categories assigned to amerchant's credit-card transactions are correct. The interchange module,in conjunction with other elements of exemplary embodiment 100, candetermine whether hundreds of thousands of credit-card transactions orgroups of transactions were assigned a correct interchange category.

Turning to FIG. 7, at arrow 7-1 the interchange module receivesinterchange-category parameters for each of the interchange categoriesassigned to a particular merchant and to which credit-card transactionswere assigned or may potentially be correctly assigned. These parametersmay change over time, so the interchange module receives parameters usedfor a particular billing cycle in which the credit-card transactionswere transacted or batched. A (fictitious) VISA® Education interchangecategory, for example, includes an interchange-category parameterrequiring that the merchant receiving the credit-card transaction be inan education business area and have a non-taxable status.

These published interchange-category parameters are published by thecard issuer of that interchange category, such as VISA® or MasterCard®.They may be published on a website, made available through APIs, ordistributed to interested parties in electronic or paper form. In anycase, these published interchange-category parameters are entered intorelational database by data-entry entity 104 in any of the mannersdescribed above for entering data (not shown in FIG. 7).

At arrow 7-2, the interchange module receives a merchant'sinterchange-category parameters. Continuing the bookstore example,assume that the interchange module receives interchange-categoryparameters for all of the bookstore's merchants and that one of itsmerchants is in an education business section but has a taxable status(e.g., a for-profit text-book store owned by the national bookstorechain). These parameters are received by the interchange module from therelational database after being stored in the database by data-entryentity 104 either manually or electronically.

At arrow 7-3, the interchange module receives credit-card transactiondata indicating groups of credit-card transactions and their assignedinterchange categories. Assume that the merchant at issue is thefor-profit text-book store owned by the national bookstore chain.

Consider the following groups of transactions and their assignedinterchange categories for this text-book store:

FEES NUMBER AMOUNT DESCRIPTION TOTAL SUPPORT PACKAGE 5.95  02 14.00TERMINAL FEE 28.00  10 586.95 VISA ® STANDARD (2.63% XSALES +$.10XITEMS) 16.44 350 12,452.24 VISA ® RTL CK DB (1.05% XSALES +$.15XITEMS) 183.25 461 27,404.65 VISA ® CPS RETAIL (1.54% XSALES +$.10XITEMS) 468.13  57 3,431.71 VISA ® EDUCATION (2.14% XSALES +$.10XITEMS) 79.14  16- 662.12- VISA ® CREDIT CONSUMER CARD @ 1.67%11.06-  01- 6.37- VISA ® CREDIT COMMERCIAL CARD @ 2.24% .14-  471,716.92 VISA ® EIRF DB (1.75% XSALES + $.20XITEMS) 39.45  02 92.90VISA ® STANDARD DB(1.90% XSALES + $.25XITEMS) 2.27  09- 257.19- VISA ®CV-CNSR DB (1.31% XSALES) 3.37- 52,203.43 VISA ® DUES AND ASSESSMENTS(.0925% XSALES) 48.29  10 1,577.69 MC STANDARD (2.70% XSALES +$.10XITEMS) 43.60 522 32,284.36 MC MERIT 3 (1.54% XSALES + $.10XITEMS)549.38  06 1,579.45 MC KEY ENTERED (1.90% XSALES + $.10XITEMS) 30.61  813,821.95 MC CORP DATA RT1(2.65% XSALES + $.10XITEMS) 109.38  16 604.03MC STANDARD DB (1.90% XSALES + $.25XITEMS) 15.48  10 203.57 MC KEY ENTERDB (1.64% XSALES + $.16XITEMS) 4.94 929 37,417.09 MC MERIT 3 DB (1.05%XSALES + $.15XITEMS) 532.23  19- 371.74- MC CONS DB RF 3 @1.40% 5.20- 19- 668.64- MC CONS CR RF 4 @1.77% 11.83-  02- 139.68- MC CORP CR RF 3@2.15% 3.00- 77,488.14 MC DUES AND ASSESSMENTS(.095% XSALES) 73.61  656,311.88 VISA ® BUS ELECT (2.20% XSALES + $.10XITEMS) 145.36  05 206.18VISA ® BUS STD (2.70% XSALES + $.10XITEMS) 6.07 296 DISCOVERAUTHORIZATIONS @ 15 CENTS 44.40 OTHER FEES DUE 2,391.38

Note the bolded group of credit-card transactions and their category:VISA® Education (not a real category; it is for example purposes). Asnoted above, this category requires that the merchant receiving thecredit-card transaction be non-taxable and in the education businesssector.

At this point the interchange module has the following information: thepublished interchange-category parameters for VISA® Education; theinterchange-category parameters for the text-book store; and that agroup of transactions have been assigned this VISA® Education category.The interchange module also has credit-card transaction data about thisgroup of transactions: the number of transactions; amount of thetransactions; and amount of the interchange fee charged.

At arrow 7-4, the interchange module determines whether or not theinterchange categories assigned to all transactions and for all of theclient's merchants during a billing cycle are correct. Continuing thisexample, the interchange module compares the interchange-categoryparameters for the text-book store with those required for the VISA®Education interchange category. The VISA® Education interchange categoryrequires that the merchant have a non-taxable status. Here the text-bookstore is for-profit and so has a taxable status. Thus, the interchangemodule determines that the group of transactions assigned the VISA®Education interchange category were incorrectly assigned this category.

For each transaction or group of transactions that are correctlyassigned, the interchange module records this finding in the relationaldatabase. For each transaction or group of transactions that are notcorrectly assigned, the interchange module can proceed to indicate thisfinding and the other pertinent information (the merchant, the reasonthe assigned category was incorrect, and credit-card transaction dataabout the transaction(s)) to report generator module 118 at arrow 7-5,or continue first to 7-6 to compute a savings or loss.

At arrow 7-6, the interchange module determines the correct interchangecategory based on comparing published interchange-category parametersfor various interchange categories with the interchange-categoryparameters for the merchant.

For the VISA® Education group of transactions the interchange moduledetermines that VISA® EIRF DB is correct because VISA® EIRF DB appliesto merchants with a taxable status with an education business section(and others), and because the transactions were handled in a particularmanner (i.e., following EIRF DB 's requirements).

At arrow 7-7, the interchange module determines the correctinterchange-category fee that should have been charged. Here EIRF DBshould have been applied instead of Education. VISA® Education's fee is2.14% times the amount plus $0.10 per transaction, with a charged fee of$79.14. The interchange module determines the correct fee, which forVISA® EIRF DB is:

VISA® EIRF DB=1.75%×Sales+$0.20×Items

For the group at issue, this computes to:

VISA® EIRF DB=1.75%×$3,431.71+$0.20×57=$60.05+$11.40=$71.45

At arrow 7-8, the interchange module determines the savings or loss,here:

Savings=$79.14−$71.45=$7.69

Following arrow 7-8, the interchange module sends this savingsinformation to the report-generator module according to arrow 7-5.

The interchange module performs the actions of arrows 7-1 to 7-8 usingan Audit ETL package 702, shown included in the interchange module inFIG. 7. The acts of arrows 7-1, 7-2, and 7-3 by an Extract portion, theacts of arrows 7-4, 7-6, 7-7, and 7-8 by a Transform portion, and theact of arrow 7-5 by a Load portion of an ETL process caused by thecomputing device executing the Audit ETL package.

Other Embodiments of the Tools

Processes 800 and 900 of FIGS. 8 and 9 describe additional embodimentsof the tools to those described above. These processes and the exampleprocesses and flow diagrams described or illustrated in FIGS. 2-4 and6-7 may be implemented in any suitable hardware, software, firmware, orcombination thereof; in the case of software and firmware, theseprocesses represent sets of operations implemented ascomputer-executable instructions stored in computer-readable media andexecutable by one or more processors (e.g., processor(s) 110 andcomputer-readable media 112). These embodiments of the tools describedin this section are not intended to limit the scope of the tools or theclaims.

Block 802 stores credit-card transaction data and other information,such as interchange categories and their published parameters. Thisinformation may be stored into a rational database in one or moretextual, human-readable formats or in one easily-machine-usable format.In cases were it is stored in more than one format or in a less-desiredformat, it may be transformed into a format designed for consumption bythe tools, such as interchange module 116. The stored credit-cardtransaction data may include any information made available through amerchant-processor statement or made available by a merchant processor,including individual transactions. Examples of this act of storing andvarious types of information and credit-card transaction data, as wellas an example of transforming formats, are set forth above.

Block 804 receives credit-card transaction data from a rational databasefor credit-card transactions accepted through one or more merchantsand/or other information. Each of these merchants may be identified byits own merchant identifier. As noted above, the data may be received byretrieving the credit-card transaction data using an Extract portion ofan Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) process. This credit-cardtransaction data and other information may be received periodically,such as each calendar month for billing cycles, or historical, such asto build a baseline interchange rate as described above.

The information received may be for multiple merchants, each of themerchants having received customer purchases during a same time period,such as a particular billing cycle, or having batched their respectivecustomer purchases during this period. The merchants can be associatedwith a single client or otherwise. If associated with a single client(e.g., the 2,000 merchants of the national bookstore chain), each may beassociated based on its merchant identifier and a list of merchantidentifiers for that single client.

Block 804 may receive the information based on its merchant identifier,such as all information from merchant-processor statements having aparticular merchant identifier. Thus, the tools may receive,automatically, without user interaction, from a relational database, andusing the merchant identifiers, credit-card transaction data forcredit-card purchases for all merchants of a particular client.

Block 804 may also receive interchange parameters. Here publishedinterchange parameters may be for each of interchange categoriesassigned and each other type of interchange category to which each ofthe credit-card transactions of a merchant may potentially be correctlyassigned. Examples of these interchange parameters are set forth above.

After receiving the information at block 804, the tools may proceed toaudit interchange categories assigned or calculate savings since anhistorical period or both. The discussion turns first to auditinginterchange categories (starting at block 806) and then to calculatingsavings (starting at block 812).

Block 806 determines if an interchange category assigned to a particulartransaction or group of transactions is correct. Block 806 may do so forgroups of transactions based on information in a merchant-processorstatement or otherwise made available, such as described in thebookstore examples above.

Block 806 may also do so for individual transactions. Determiningcorrect interchange categories for individual transactions may beperformed like groups above, but doing so for individual transactionspermits greater analysis because each transaction may or may not becorrectly assigned based not just on a merchant's status, but also thespecifics of a transaction.

For example, if a particular transaction is assigned a Card Not Presenttype of interchange category and the tools have information about thatparticular transaction, the tools may determine, based on parameters forthe transaction, such as the credit card actually being present at thetime of the transaction, that it was incorrectly assigned.

In some embodiments, block 806 may be performed using an Extract portionof an Extract, Transform, and Load process, such as described above(e.g., ETL 206 of FIG. 2).

Following block 806, the tools may proceed to indicate its findings orproceed to determine a savings or loss based on the incorrect assignmentat block 808. In either case block 810 provides results of the tools'determination, here that one or more transactions have been assigned anincorrect card-issuer interchange category.

Block 808, responsive to the tools determining that an interchangecategory was incorrectly assigned to a transaction or group oftransactions, determines a savings or loss between the incorrectlyassigned interchange-category's rate and the correctinterchange-category's rate. The tools may do so by calculating acorrect fee for the applicable transaction at the correct rate andsubtracting the incorrect fee. The tools may provide this information toblock 810 to report.

Starting with block 812, the tools build a baseline card-issuerinterchange rate for a merchant or group of merchants. Block 812 may doso by receiving credit-card transaction data for multiple historicalbilling cycles and for each merchant of a group of merchants, such asthose associated with a particular client. The tools may base thisbaseline rate on card-issuer interchange fees associated withcard-issuer interchange categories assigned to credit-card transactionsand dollar volumes on which the card-issuer interchange fees arecharged. The card-issuer interchange fees and dollar volumes can bereceived from multiple historic merchant-processor statements of theparticular merchant and over a historical period.

In the bookstore example above, the tools, through interchange module116, extract card-issuer interchange fees and the dollar volumes fromcredit-card transaction data in a relational database and transform thecard-issuer interchange fees and the dollar volumes into the baselinecard-issuer interchange rate by dividing the card-issuer interchangefees by the dollar volumes. In some examples described above, theinterchange module performed these acts automatically using an ETLprocess.

With the baseline determined, block 814 adjusts the baseline card-issuerinterchange rate based on rate changes. Block 814 adjusts the baselinerate based on rate changes made during or after the historical period tothe card-issuer interchange categories assigned to credit-cardtransactions of the particular merchant over the historical period.

In more detail, the tools may receive a rate change to the particularcard-issuer interchange category for the group of credit-cardtransactions assigned to that category, determine a fee change based onthe dollar volume of the group and the rate change, receive or determinea total interchange fee charged during the historical period based on atotal dollar volume and the baseline card-issuer interchange rate, andadd or subtract the fee change for the group from the total interchangefee charged during the historical period. By so doing the tools providean adjusted baseline interchange fee, which the tools divide by thetotal dollar volume to determine an adjusted baseline interchange rate.

In the bookstore example, for instance, the tools adjusted the baselineinterchange-category rate based on an interchange-category's ratechanging from 1.54% and $0.10 per transaction to 1.55% and $0.11 pertransaction.

With the adjusted baseline interchange-category rate available, thetools may proceed to blocks 816 and 818 or proceed direct to block 820.

Block 816 receives card-issuer interchange category parameterssufficient to determine parameter changes that are effective to replacea higher-cost interchange category with a lower-cost interchangecategory. The parameters received may include all parameters by whichcard issuers decide which interchange category to assign totransactions, such as a merchant's area of business, informationreceived for a transaction, how information was received for thetransaction, and a type of card used in the transaction. Examples ofthese parameters are set forth in the examples illustrated in FIGS. 4and 5 above.

Block 818 provides parameter changes needed to reduce fees. Block 818may also provide the potential fee savings associated with each of thesechanges, such as indicating that a merchant will save $4,302 on a sameamount and number of transactions as a prior merchant processorstatement if the merchant will implement a new data-intake procedure(e.g., entering the 3-digit number on the back of a credit card for anover-the-phone transaction). Examples of parameters changes andpotential savings are described above in relation to FIGS. 4 and 5.

Block 820 determines a current card-issuer interchange rate for acurrent billing cycle. This current rate may be lower than it wouldotherwise have been because a merchant implemented parameter changessuggestions by the tools at block 818. Blocks 816 and 818, however, arenot required for the tools to implement block 820 or any other block ofprocess 800.

The tools perform the actions of block 820 by calculating a card-issuerinterchange fee for each of the merchants and the dollar volume ofcredit-card purchases for all of the merchants and on which thecard-issuer interchange fees charged are assessed. Dividing the totalfee for all merchants by this dollar volume results in a currentinterchange rate averaged over all the merchants.

The tools then determine a rate difference between the adjusted baselineand the current rate at block 822. Block 822 may determine thisdifference automatically by subtracting one from the other.

Block 824 determines a fee savings based on the rate change (if any).The tools may determine this savings, automatically and without userinteraction, based on a credit-card dollar volume for the credit-cardtransactions during the current billing cycle and the determined ratedifference.

Responsive to determining a fee savings at block 824 and/or a feesavings based on an incorrectly assigned interchange category at block808, the tools provide these fee savings at block 810. Block 810 alsoprovides other information and/or performs some calculations. In onecase the tools provide a report, in a human-readable format, showingwhich of the credit-card transactions to which an interchange categoryassigned were not correct and an associated fee savings or loss. Inanother case the tools provide a report to a particular client settingout various fee savings or net savings and a contractually agreed-onpercentage of the fees due.

Each of the above acts involving receiving or retrieving information ofany sort, a calculation (e.g., add, divide, subtract), or enabling thetools to provide results may be performed automatically and without userinteraction, such as through execution of one or more ETL packages.Example ETL packages are described as part of the bookstore exampleabove. The tools, through these ETL packages or otherwise, may providereports to users that compile savings over hundreds of thousands ofcredit-card transactions.

Process 900 in FIG. 9 illustrates, in additional detail, actionsperformable by the tools in relation to blocks 816 and 818 of FIG. 8,though process 900 may act independent from blocks 816, 818, and any ofprocess 800 (and likewise process 800 from process 900).

Block 902 receives interchange categories and one or more of theirparameters, the parameters including: merchant's area of business,information received for a transaction, how information is received fora transaction, and type of card used in a transaction. The tools mayreceive all possible interchange categories or a subset of these. Asnoted in the above example, there are currently 129 VISA® andMasterCard® interchange categories, most of which have parameters usedto determine when each is assigned to a credit-card transaction. Thetools may actively retrieve or receive most-current parameters andpricing so that the tools' analysis is kept up-to-date.

Block 904 receives transaction information for a particular merchant.This transaction information may include which transactions have beenassigned which categories and the merchant's currently assigned and/orpotential business area. The transaction information may includecredit-card transaction data and be received from a relational databasein an easily-computer readable format, as provided in some examplesabove. The transaction information may group transactions or list themseparately. Also, the transaction information may indicate theparameters and pricing for each category or may not. If this informationis not included the tools may retrieve or receive it, such as at block902.

Based on the information received at blocks 902 and 904, block 906determines, for at least one assigned interchange category received atblock 904 and at least one interchange category received at block 902,which potential interchange category may be assigned instead of onecurrently assigned. Thus, the tools may determine which interchangecategories have a lower cost than a currently-assigned interchangecategory. In one example above, the tools act through the categorymodule and its entity to determine which categories having lower feesthan others and also have parameters that may realistically be changedby the merchant. The parameter changes do not necessarily have to beimplemented by the merchant making some sort of change; as noted above,the change may be changing the merchant's area of business with the cardissuer and/or merchant processor. In this case the fee savings may evenbe retroactive, and thus actual rather than potential (e.g., by changinga merchant from “retail” to “retail education”).

Block 906 may determine all interchange categories that have betterpricing, and some or only the best based on changes a merchant is likelyto want to make. The tools, for example, may only indicate interchangecategories that may be attained through changes that do not includechanging the type of card, as this may be difficult to do. Also forexample, a merchant may be informed only that the best potential savingsare to change its area of business to improve a particular interchangecategory (e.g., from EIRF 510 to CPS Retail 2 Emerging Markets 508 asshown in FIG. 5). The tools, at block 906, may determine all of thesepotential improvements to interchange categories, not just those withina particular area of business, as one example above describes.

Block 908 determines a potential fee savings if the one or moretransactions assigned an interchange category were instead assignedanother, lower-cost interchange category. The tools may do so for allpossible interchange category changes or a subset, as noted above. Inthe above example, the tools act through the category module todetermine potential interchange category improvements and a potentialsavings for each.

Block 910 provides the potential fees savings and, in some cases, theparameter change needed to potentially bring about these potential feesavings. Thus, block 910 may indicate (e.g., through report generatormodule 118) to a merchant or client that by requiring its personnel toanswer a query with “No” for some types of transactions will potentiallysave the merchant (and the client) a certain amount of money ininterchange category fees assessed by a card issuer (e.g., VISA® orMasterCard®).

In some cases the suggested parameter change may already be performed bya merchant. In these cases, the merchant may indicate this to itsmerchant processor and thereby retroactively save fees. In at least thisway the tools may act to audit interchange category fees in additionalto the manners set forth in the section entitled Auditing InterchangeCategories.

Each of blocks 902, 904, 906, 908, and 910 may be performedautomatically and without user interaction. Thus, the tools (e.g.,category module 120) may act to receive interchange categories and theirparameters (e.g., from card issuers), receive credit-card transactiondata (e.g., from merchant processors or a relational database after theywere previously gathered and transformed) for a merchant, determineparameter changes, determine potential fee savings, and provide theseparameters and savings. Note also that each of these blocks may beperformed many, many times. For the national bookstore example, thetools may find potential fee savings for dozens of currently-assignedinterchange categories for each of the 2,000 merchants of a client. Allof this may be performed automatically such that a client receives,either for all merchants or merchant grouped by similarities, parameterchanges and potential fee savings if these parameter changes are made.As noted above, interchange category fees amount to many billions ofdollars worldwide. The tools may save clients and their merchants asignificant amount of money in these fees by analyzing the interchangecategories and each merchant's transaction information.

CONCLUSION

The above-described tools are capable of altering to which interchangecategories credit-card transactions are assigned and accompanyingpotential fee savings. The tools may do so automatically and with userinteraction for one or even hundreds of merchants, thereby potentiallysaving the merchant or a client associated with these many merchantsthousands if not millions of dollars in interchange fees. Although thetools have been described in language specific to structural featuresand/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the toolsdefined in the appended claims are not necessarily limited to thespecific features or acts described. Rather, the specific features andacts are disclosed as example forms of implementing the tools.

1. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readableinstructions therein that, when executed by a computing device, causethe computing device to perform acts comprising: receiving a firstinterchange category, a first interchange category cost, a secondinterchange category, and a second interchange category cost; receivingtransaction details for a client, the transaction details indicatingthat a particular transaction has been assigned to the first interchangecategory and including transaction information used to assign theparticular transaction to the first interchange category; determining achange in the transaction information that is capable of causing theparticular transaction to be assigned to the second interchangecategory, the second interchange category cost being lower than thefirst interchange category cost; and reporting the change in thetransaction information.
 2. The one or more computer-readable media ofclaim 1, wherein the particular transaction is assigned to the firstinterchange category based on interchange category parameters, thetransaction information is used to determine one or more of theinterchange category parameters, and the change in the transactioninformation is effective to change the one or more interchange categoryparameters.
 3. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 2,wherein the one or more interchange category parameters comprise one ormore of the client's area of business, transaction data obtained as partof the particular transaction, how transaction data is obtained as partof the particular transaction, or a type of card used in the particulartransaction.
 4. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 2,further comprising one or more of: providing the first interchangecategory; providing the second interchange category; providing the firstinterchange category cost; providing the second interchange categorycost; or providing one or more of the interchange category parameters.5. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, furthercomprising providing a cost savings that is capable of being obtained ifthe second interchange category is used to categorize a secondtransaction of the one or more transactions instead of the firstinterchange category.
 6. The one or more computer-readable media ofclaim 1, wherein the change in the transaction information comprises achange in how transaction information is received as part of thetransaction.
 7. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1,further comprising: receiving updated interchange categories; anddetermining that the change in the transaction information may beutilized to cause a different transaction of the client to be assignedto an updated interchange category of the updated interchange categoriesinstead of the first interchange category, the updated interchangecategory having a lower cost than the first interchange category.
 8. Theone or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the transactiondetails comprise an indication that the particular transaction wasincorrectly assigned to the first interchange category and wherein thechange in the transaction information is capable of causing theparticular transaction to be correctly assigned to the secondinterchange category.
 9. The one or more computer-readable media ofclaim 1, wherein the client comprises a merchant and wherein theparticular transaction comprises a retail transaction of the merchant.10. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readableinstructions therein that, when executed by a computing device, causethe computing device to perform acts comprising: receiving transactiondetails for a client, the transaction details indicating one or moretransactions having been assigned to a first interchange category andtransaction information used to assign the one or more transactions tothe first interchange category; determining a change in the transactioninformation that is capable of causing the one or more transactions tobe assigned to a second interchange category, the second interchangecategory having a lower cost than the first interchange category; andreporting the change in the transaction information.
 11. The one or morecomputer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the transaction informationis used to determine interchange category parameters that are used toassign the one or more transactions to the first interchange category orthe second interchange category, the interchange category parametersbeing selected from a group comprising the client's area of business,transaction data obtained as part of the one or more transactions, howtransaction data is obtained as part of the one or more transactions, ora type of card used in the one or more transactions.
 12. The one or morecomputer-readable media of claim 10, further comprising reporting a costsavings that is capable of being obtained if the change in thetransaction information is utilized to cause a particular transactionfor the client to be assigned to the second interchange category insteadof the first interchange category.
 13. The one or more computer-readablemedia of claim 10, wherein the one or more transactions comprise acredit card transaction and the change in the transaction informationcomprises a change in a way in which credit card information is capturedas part of the credit card transaction.
 14. The one or morecomputer-readable media of claim 10, further comprising: calculating afirst transaction fee that the client was charged to process the one ormore transactions based on the one or more transactions being assignedto the first interchange category, the first transaction fee includingone or more of an interchange fee, a merchant processor processing fee,or an assessment fee; calculating a second transaction fee that theclient would have been charged to process the one or more transactionsbased on the one or more transactions being assigned to the secondinterchange category; and reporting a difference between the firsttransaction fee and the second transaction fee.
 15. One or morecomputer-readable media having computer-readable instructions thereinthat, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device toperform acts comprising: analyzing a group of transactions for a clientto determine that each transaction of the group of transactions isassigned to a respective interchange category; determining that eachtransaction of the group of transactions may be assigned to one or moredifferent interchange categories by changing one or more behaviors thatare used to determine to which interchange category one or moretransactions of the group of transactions is assigned, the one or moredifferent interchange categories having a lower cost than the respectiveinterchange category; and providing information about changing the oneor more behaviors.
 16. The one or more computer-readable media of claim15, wherein the respective interchange category comprises a differentinterchange category for each transaction of the group of transactions.17. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 15, furthercomprising determining a cost savings that is capable of being obtainedif the information about changing the one or more behaviors is used forone or more different transactions for the client.
 18. The one or morecomputer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the one or more behaviorscomprise one or more ways in which credit card information is capturedas part of the one or more transactions of the group of transactions.19. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein theclient comprises retail merchants and wherein the group of transactionscomprises retail transactions for the retail merchants.
 20. The one ormore computer-readable media of claim 15, further comprising:calculating a first interchange fee cost for the group of transactionsbased on each transaction of the group of transactions being assigned toits respective interchange category; calculating a second interchangefee cost for the group of transactions based on each transaction of thegroup of transactions being assigned to the one or more differentinterchange categories; and reporting a total cost difference betweenthe first interchange fee cost and the second interchange fee cost.